Less than two years after Victoria’s first waste-to-energy facility opened in Wollert, the plant is proving the system of transforming food to power is a sustainable way to address climate change and food waste.
Sitting next to Yarra Valley Water’s Aurora sewage treatment plant, the ReWaste factory receives about 140 tonnes of waste from 20 food manufacturers, supermarkets, shopping centres, and fruit and vegetable wholesalers each day.
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| The plant converts everything from fruit to airline catering waste into energy. |
“ReWaste treats food waste via a biological process called anaerobic digestion,” waste to energy services manager Damien Bassett said.
“This process produces biogas, mainly made up of methane, which is converted to electricity via our combined heat and power engines.
“This electricity is then used to power our facility and our neighbouring treatment plant with the remainder being exported to the grid.”
Second Facility
The 34,500 tonnes of waste processed since the plant opened produced 7.8 million kWh of energy, 70 per cent of which has been fed back to the grid.
The amount of waste diverted from the landfill equated to growing over 1.2 million tree seedlings across 10 years, Mr Bassett said.
Yarra Valley Water managing director Pat McCafferty said the facility was proving so efficient plans had already begun for a second facility, about 1.5 times bigger than the current one, to be operational within “the next couple of years”.
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| ReWaste services manager Damien Bassett at the Wollert plant. |
Combined with large scale solar projects, the Wollert plants would enable YVW to operate on 100 per cent renewable energy by 2025, Mr McCafferty said.
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