This Proof of Concept Life Cycle Assessment was carried out for the East Rockingham Waste to Energy plant, and compares the greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel resource depletion resulting from the East Rockingham Waste to Energy facility to the reference system of black coal power generation.
Report extract
East Rockingham Waste to Energy (ERWTE) facility is under construction in the Rockingham Industry Zone 42 km south of Perth. Waste to Energy (WtE) plants are also known as Energy from Waste (EfW) plants. On completion, the facility is expected to annually recover energy from 300,000 tonnes of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) and Commercial and Industrial (C&I) waste, and supply 231,680 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity to the Western Australian (WA) South West Interconnected System (SWIS) electricity grid. It is also expected to annually recover more than 7,253 tonnes of metals and 65,596 tonnes of recycled aggregate from the waste stream that would otherwise be landfilled.
The project will incorporate a 31 MW electricity generator and an incinerator bottom ash (IBA) treatment plant to manufacture recycled aggregates. Inert materials are recovered after the thermal process, including sand, bricks, metals, glass, and other inert materials. After metals are removed, the material is crushed and screened to produce a recycled aggregate product called incinerator bottom ash aggregates (IBAA). Overall, the facility is expected to achieve a 96% diversion of residual waste from landfill.
