Reorganic Energy

Swanbank Power Station uses landfill gas to directly supplement black coal in the generation of renewable energy through the ReOrganic project. ReOrganic Energy Swanbank is one of the largest waste-to-energy projects in Australia

ReOrganic Energy Swanbank is an integrated solution to waste management bringing together the expertise of Landfill Management Services, Thiess Services, CS Energy and New Hope Energy. The Australian Greenhouse Office, under the Renewable Energy Commercialisation Program, provided a significant funding contribution of $1 million for this project.

ReOrganic has the potential to be the largest waste to energy initiative from a single landfill in Australia, and the amount of landfill gas produced is expected to increase until 2016, depending on the performance of the technology.

By using traditional landfill management practices, full decomposition can take over fifty years. By using bio-cell technology, ReOrganic Energy Swanbank can halve this time frame and significantly, increasing gas volumes in the process.

ReOrganic Energy is a natural process that speeds up the waste breakdown that would normally occur over an extended period. The microorganisms, or bacteria, occur naturally in landfills. They live without air (anaerobic) and consume organic matter to produce, among other things, methane and oxygen. These bacteria are added (via the leachate) in greater quantities to the bio-cell, which receives organic waste (garden, food and wood waste) and bio-solids (sewage sludge), to speed up the production of bio-gas.

The CS Energy Swanbank Power Station receives secondary green fuel from two sources, landfill gas and the bio-cell. This is how waste is converted into energy in an environmentally friendly way.