z Urea plant opts for traditional technology
A 90 PER cent reduction in water use could be achieved if dry cooling technology was used at the proposed Collie urea plant.
However, it would come at a major cost, according to the plant proponents, Perdaman Chemicals and Fertilisers.
Perdaman infrastructure and government relations manager Gary Watson said dry cooling would cost $40 million compared with $11 million for the traditional water cooling method.
The urea plant will use 12 gigalitres of water a year, of which 9.5 gigalitres will be used for cooling, according to the company’s Public Environment Review (PER) document, which was released for public comment on Monday. Ninety per cent of this cooling water could be saved if dry cooling technology was used.
Mr Watson said Perdaman considered the use of dry cooling or dry condensing but in addition to cost the company found the processes were unsuitable because of excessive noise, inability to recover and use waste heat and higher associated carbon dioxide and other emissions.
“For this reason Perdaman is not intending to use dry cooling technology,” he said.
Despite Perdaman confirming it would only take 12 gigalitres of water a year, Collie River campaigner Ed Riley said the application was only the start of industrial demand for Wellington Dam water.
“Whether they source it from Harvey or not, it is still going to drain the weir,” he said.
“I do think they should be looking at other measures, such as dry cooling, but industry always takes the cheapest option.”
Conservation Council of WA director Piers Verstegen said the council wanted to see WA become a leader in environmental efficiency.
“It is not acceptable to propose projects that don’t use the best technology,” he said.
“Perdaman has identified potential technologies, like dry cooling and geo-sequestration, but they haven’t committed to it.
“They are taking the cheap road and making a huge impact in the meantime.”
The PER also revealed the urea plant would emit 3.3 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions every year, or 0.6 per cent of Australia’s total emissions.
Mr Watson said Perdaman did not consider the planned emissions to be too much, because more than that amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) would be sequestered when the urea was used in farming applications.
However, Perdaman’s preferred outcome is that the sequester-ready CO2 from its Collie plant is biologically, chemically or geologically sequestered.
Perdaman is contributing towards research into possible carbon capture and storage in the Lower Lesueur formation.
As well as possible geo-sequestration, Perdaman is also investigating bio-sequestration and chemical geo-sequestration options.
Perdaman project director Joseph McCarthy attended a meeting in Collie last Wednesday regarding a possible $300 million algae sequestration plant to be based in Collie.
Mr Verstegen said the plant would release more CO2 than Bluewates stages 3 and 4 combined.
“That is a significant increase in WA,” he said. “Perdaman is making it more difficult for WA to reach its emissions targets. If Perdaman will contribute this much, then someone else with have to cut theirs’ more.”
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