Gas waste to be re-used

By Melissa Grant
MORE than a quarter of carbon dioxide output from Lang Lang’s BassGas Plant will be captured and re-used from next year.
Councillors last week approved a $20 million recovery plant to be built at the site, which will prevent 55,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide and nine tonnes of sulphur compounds entering the atmosphere each year.
The plant, to operate day and night, seven days a week, will purify and liquefy the carbon dioxide for commercial re-use, including firefighting, wine making, soft drink carbonation, food preservation and freezing.
It will be built by Air Liquide, a world leader in gases for industry, health and the environment and the CO2 business in Australia.
Councillors said the recovery plant made environmental and economic sense.
“It’s clearly a really sound, positive outcome,” Cr Graeme Legge said.
“Best-practice standards are being required.”
The council received two objections from nearby landowners who cited concerns about noise, particularly at night, visual impact and light spillage.
Councillors ruled that the plant could go ahead on the proviso that halogen lights face only east.
Cr George Blenkhorn said this would eliminate most lighting concerns.
“By getting the lighting to face east you will stop light pollution to residents in area,” he said.
Origin, and its joint venturers in BassGas, have invested $750 million in developing the BassGas project.
It provides gas, condensates and LPG from the Yolla field, 147 kilometres off Victoria’s south-east coast. The gas is processed onshore at the Lang Lang plant.
Origin’s executive general manager for Upstream Oil and Gas, Paul Zealand, said building the recovery unit at the Lang Lang site illustrated the company’s commitment to cleaner energy.
“Low-emissions energy is a key part of Origin’s strategy for a sustainable future and is important to both us and our customers. The amount of CO2 that will be captured for re-use is equivalent to the annual greenhouse gas emissions of more than 21,000 cars or 4900 Australian homes,” he said.