The Swanbank Co-firing Project involves burning council tree-prunings with coal in the Swanbank Power Station. The tree-prunings are shredded at a Council waste transfer station and delivered to the Thiess landfill site at Swanbank.
The co-firing trial used approximately 50 tonnes of council tree prunings mixed with coal at low blend rates (< 10%) at Swanbank and was carried out in November 2001.
This type of co-firing is already in operation at a number of southern power stations including the 1,000 megawatt black-coal fired Wallerawang Power Station near Lithgow in New South Wales.
The trial incorporated the most rigorous performance and combustion testing ever undertaken at a Queensland Power Station – with 10 external technical specialists being employed during the trial period to carry out the measurement program.
Test parameters included:
- Heat rate, efficiency and load (megawatts)
- NOx and SOx
- Trace elements emissions
- Fly ash leachability
Assessment of environmental and commercial benefits will be undertaken to determine whether CS Energy moves forward with this initiative.