Cooking with (recycled) gas — Albany in pioneering study to use gas harvested from rubbish to supply city

Albany could become Australia’s first city to run solely on recycled natural gas, with a feasibility study set to map out how to deliver gas from a Perth tip to Albany homes. Global energy provider ATCO will lead the $70,000 study to assess how Albany’s liquefied petroleum gas network could switch to natural gas harvested from the North Bannister waste facility south of Perth. Methane would be collected from decomposing waste, then treated to remove impurities and gases such as oxygen and nitrogen. ATCO’s Russell James said the feasibility study would look at the technology needed to ensure the impurities could be removed cost-effectively. “Rather than flaring the methane into the atmosphere, our feasibility study will investigate the cost-effectiveness to treat this methane and, when clean, inject the renewable natural gas into the Albany gas network, which will lower gas emissions across the city,” he said. Mr James said the Albany grid was well suited to embrace renewable gas as the city’s existing reticulated gas network was not connected to any major gas transmission pipelines. Instead, the gas is trucked from Perth and deposited through delivery points which, if viable, would be used to deliver the recycled gas. “The existing virtual pipeline operations and gas network material makes it ideal for a clean energy conversion,” Mr James said. The State Government has contributed $20,000 to the feasibility study through the Great Southern Development Commission. Regional Development Minister Alannah MacTiernan said using recycled natural gas in Albany would complement the State Government’s Renewable Hydrogen Strategy. “Albany residents take pride in their wind farm’s contribution to WA’s renewable energy position and they would love to know if the same could be said of their gas for cooking and heating,” she said. ATCO Australia managing director Pat Creaghan said he looked forward to creating an “ongoing, sustainable energy source for the people of Albany”. “In addition to green hydrogen, the use of recycled or ‘renewable’ natural gas across Australia within existing natural gas networks is an excellent way to lower emissions, and to capture energy that would otherwise not be utilised,” he said. The results of the study will be presented to the State Government in January.