- Pearl Global becomes the first business to receive a grant application from the Queensland Government’s Waste to Biofutures program
- The company has secured a $250,000 grant to implement stage one of its waste to the energy plan
- The plan is estimated to cost approximately $1 million
Pearl Global becomes the first business to receive a grant application from the Queensland Government’s Waste to Biofutures program.
The company has secured a $250,000 grant to implement stage one of its waste to the energy plan, which will convert existing waste gas to power. The plan is estimated to cost approximately $1 million.
Pearls current process controls two types of gasses condensable and non-condensable gasses.
Condensable gas becomes a liquid hydrocarbon (fuels) and non-condensable gasses, under the environmental license, are treated within a thermal oxidiser.
These non-condensable gasses contain hydrogen, methane, ethane and propane and will be used to create electrical energy using infrastructure. This process will be partially funded by the Queensland Government.
Pearl is a tyre processing company that applies unique, next-generation thermal desorption technology to convert tyres into valuable secondary products including waste to energy opportunities.
It has Australia’s first environmental approvals for the thermal treatment of rubber and is in the process of commissioning its first commercial scale production plant in Stapylton, Queensland.
The company’s technology is a significant advancement in other methods of processing waste tyres.
The technology has low emissions, no hazardous by-products, requires no chemical intervention and is the only process that meets the standard emissions criteria set by the Australian regulators.
Managing Director Andrew Drennan is proud of the progression his team has made.
“We have always been aware of the ability for our process to be a closed loop sustainable system, and now is the right time to implement this project,” he said.
“We have been able to demonstrate that our gases are suitable for energy generation.”
Chairman Gary Foster says this is a significant step for the company for a number of reasons.
“First, self-powering our existing operations from a waste stream (end of life tyres) is the first important step in our ultimate goal of producing and providing excess power back to the grid,” he said.
“Secondly, there is the positive effect of sizeable savings by eliminating electricity bills which can be over $35,000/month, being one of our top three expenditure items along with wages and lease costs.”
Pearl recently acquired Australian Tyre Processors (ATP). The company will use ATP’s end-of-life tyre collection and shredding operations for its conversion technology.
The tyres will be converted into oil, gas power and carbon char.