Important Update:
Since opening in 2003, the EarthPower facility has provided a viable and valuable solution for businesses looking to divert their organic waste away from landfill. Veolia is committed to continuing this important work, providing customers with sustainable outcomes that better the environment, long into the future.
To enable this, Veolia is undertaking an asset renewal program to upgrade its anaerobic digester process system.
EarthPower: Australia's first food waste-to-energy facility
Earthpower accepts organic waste material from surrounding industrial, commercial, and residential sectors and, through anaerobic digestion, converts the waste into renewable energy while simultaneously producing a nutrient-rich soil improver.
This circular solution recovers the value from waste that would have otherwise been sent to landfill, meaning it reduces greenhouse gas emissions and while creating new value.
The Earthpower facility located in Sydney uses anaerobic digestion technology to convert solid and liquid food waste, into a combustible gas similar to natural gas.
The digester gas is then recovered and used as a renewable fuel source in cogeneration engines to produce green electricity. This electricity is then sold to the grid for distribution to domestic, commercial and industrial clients.
A by-product of the anaerobic digestion process is a nutrient rich sludge, which is dried and granulated for sale as a fertilizer into the agriculture and horticultural markets. Waste heat from the cogeneration engines is used in the fertilizer drying process and to heat the digesters.
When compared to other food waste disposal processes, such as landfill and composting, the Earthpower facility achieves the highest environmental sustainable use of food waste and most favourable environmental outcomes by way of production of green energy, while also producing organic fertilizer for local agriculture businesses, reducing the need of synthetic fertilizers.
Learn more about the Earthpower Technology here
Generating Green Energy
Diverting waste to resource recovery
Producing nutrient-rich fertilizer
Saving on Waste Disposal Costs
- Frequently Asked Questions -
What are our accepted and non accepted waste materials?
Earthpower is designed to process five specific waste streams for the production of energy and nutrient rich fertilizer. These organic waste streams include solid organic waste with maximum inorganic contamination of less than 5% per load with spadable sludges, liquid wastes, grease trap waste, and selected packaged wastes.
The plant can accept both solid and liquid waste. The following list provides some guidance on acceptable solid & liquid waste streams:
Accepted |
Non accepted |
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Pollution Monitoring Data
Earthpower is required to publish pollution monitoring data in regard to its operations.
BIOGAS FLARE
CO-GENERATION EXHAUST STACK
STORM WATER
BIOFILTER EXHAUST STACK