Waipu energy analyst Steve Goldthorpe says Northland councils should walk away from the Global Olivine proposal to create raw materials from rubbish at Portland.
Waipu energy analyst Steve Goldthorpe says Northland councils should walk away from the Global Olivine proposal to create raw materials from rubbish at Portland.
Local authorities should walk away from a "naive and idealistic" plan to build a power station and industrial park at Portland, as it falls short of basic scientific research, according to a Waipu energy analyst.
Steve Goldthorpe felt a "strong sense of deja vu" when plans for the Global OlivineSustainable Resource Recycling Facility (GO-SRRF) were announced at a Waipu business breakfast meeting last week.
The Global Olivine (GO) managing director, Kerikeri's Warwick Davies, promised 395 jobs through the processing "up to 2.5 million tonnes of waste per year".
New Zealand and Pacific Islands rubbish would be transported, converted onsite into raw materials and manufactured before being exported.
Plans feature 21 onsite plants, including a power station and water desalination plant.
Mr Goldthorpe was contracted by landfill operators Woodward Clyde (NZ) in the 1990s to probe GO's plans to convert a Meremere power station into a rubbish-burning electricity plant. The project was scrapped in 1999 after an 18-month battle for resource consent with three councils. GO NZ also shelved plans for a Gisborne plant after local opposition.
The company said an "environmental permit" had since been granted for a plant in Peterborough in the UK with environmental and planning consent granted for a plant in Kwinana in Western Australia.
Kwinana was mothballed, according to GO director Tony Andrew, as it failed to secure solid waste supply contracts.
Mr Andrew reassured that all "processes and technologies incorporated in the GO-SRRF" were "operational internationally although not in the integrated array developed by Global Olivine Limited".
Mr Goldthorpe was concerned about the dioxin production at the proposed plant and the vitrification technology -- the use of electric arcs at 6000C to heat fly ash and melt it into glass. The glass would use a raw material for manufacturing.
Vitrification was something nuclear researchers didn't yet have a grip on, Goldthorpe said.
"This plant is too good to be true and I wonder, are they hopelessly naive?"
He said the company's greenhouse gas accounting also needed to be put under the microscope.
GO director Tony Andrew told the Advocate the GO-SRRF vitrification process was "proven and currently operating technology and equipment provided by a reputable and internationally recognised technology partner".
"The process has been comprehensively peer reviewed and is installed and operating extensively in Japan and the US."
