Fitzroy and Carbon Logica have successfully completed Stage 1 of the Ironbark Waste Coal Mine Gas Power Station, located at Fitzroy’s new metallurgical coal mine in Moranbah.
The Ironbark facility is designed to abate fugitive methane emissions by converting waste coal mine gas into electricity and marks a significant milestone in Carbon Logica’s mission to reduce methane emissions from metallurgical coal mining as well as Fitzroy’s commitment to drive innovation for a more sustainable future.
Stage 1 of the power station has a generation capacity of 5MW and will expand to 20MW in the next stage. Once expanded, the facility will produce enough electricity to power approximately 35,000 households each year, while also reducing emissions by over 90,000 tonnes of CO2e annually.
Managing Director of Carbon Logica, Scott Barker, said the rapid development and success of the project is a testament to the strong relationship Carbon Logica formed as Fitzroy’s emissions abatement partner.
“The commissioning of Ironbark is a significant achievement for our team and a step forward in our mission to abate methane emissions within the metallurgical coal industry.
“This is the first stage of a larger abatement project designed to beneficially utilise the waste methane gas that is produced as part of the mining process and reduce emissions through three key elements.
“The power station will produce electricity for no additional emissions making it net zero or net-negative.
“It will also create a use case of the waste product that would typically be flared, or worst case vented into the atmosphere. This turns a waste product into a commodity that is sold into the power station asset.
“In turn, the ability to create value from the waste product encourages more drainage ahead of mining which leads to lower emissions in the ventilation air (VAM).”
The project will collect the waste coal mine gas (methane) from the sources of gas around the mine site via gas collection and centralisation equipment before conditioning the waste gas so that it can be used as fuel for the generators. This involves reducing the temperature (from ~50 degrees) to below its dew point (below ~10 degrees) and dropping out the moisture.
Generating electricity will be done by using a series of reciprocating internal combustion engines (Stage 1 of the project uses 5 x 1MW sets) and then handing the electricity through an initial a step-up transformer (415v to 11kv) and then a HV board before delivering the electricity to the mine’s substation National Electricity Market connection point. When expanded to the expected 20MW synchronous power station will provide system strength to the network and enable further deployment of renewable energy within the Nebo Renewable Energy Zone (REZ).
Fitzroy’s Chief Executive Officer, Dan Clifford, said the project is a milestone for Fitzroy.
“This is the first operational emissions abatement project since the Safeguard Mechanism Reforms were introduced.
“Fitzroy is proud to have supported this project’s development with Carbon Logica and help contribute to both environmental sustainability and energy security.”
