Victorian brown coal processing plant – Social Impact Assessment
BCBRA (Japanese joint venture who commissioned GHD to provides services to) developed proprietary technology called ECOPRO® which converts brown coal into a variety of high value energy products with lower greenhouse gas emissions than conventional technology when integrated with a carbon storage project.
Following successful trials of ECOPRO® technology in Japan at a 20 tonne/day coal processing plant, BCBRA engaged GHD for support with numerous technical studies – including a social impact assessment – to understand the feasibility of developing larger scale projects in the Latrobe Valley, Victoria.
As part of the broader study, the client engaged GHD to investigate the feasibility of using ECOPRO® technology to produce SNG/LNG, methanol, acetic acid, diesel oil and hydrogen at a variety of scales. Drawing on the results of this analysis, the client proposed to construct and operate the following developments in the Latrobe Valley: •a 200 tonne/day ECOPRO® technology demonstration processing plant with a productive capacity of 1PJ/year of synthetic natural gas (SNG) (Stage 1); and pending successful outcomes •a 4,000 tonne/day ECOPRO® commercial processing plant with a productive capacity of 830 kton/year of methanol (Stage 2).
GHD conducted a socio-economic impact study of both of these proposed projects. Supporting labour and industrial relations studies were also completed as part of this scope of work along with a community engagement strategy
Despite some late changes to the project description, the results were delivered to the client on time and within budget.
B Rubes
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