Birkenhead additional wood firing project

Birkenhead additional wood firing project is an industrial fuel efficiency project located at the Adelaide Brighton Cement (Adbri) manufacturing facility in Birkenhead, South Australia. Situated on the LeFevre Peninsula approximately 14km northwest of the Adelaide CBD, the project operates within a heavy industrial and port precinct adjacent to the Port River. It was registered in October 2015 and covers the specific industrial footprint of the cement works rather than a broad land area.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Industrial Electricity and Fuel Efficiency) Methodology Determination 2015. This methodology credits abatement generated by improving energy efficiency or switching to lower-emission energy sources. In this specific case, the project focuses on displacing fossil fuels, primarily natural gas used in the cement kilns, with alternative fuels derived from waste. The primary activity involves the use of Recycled Construction and Demolition (RCD) wood waste and Refuse Derived Fuel (RDF), which diverts significant volumes of waste from landfill while providing the high temperatures necessary for clinker production.

The local environment of the Birkenhead area is highly urbanized and industrial, characterized by coastal sand dunes and reclaimed land typical of the LeFevre Peninsula. The broader Adelaide Plains region experiences a Mediterranean climate with hot, dry summers and cool, wet winters, averaging approximately 440mm of rainfall annually. However, as this is an industrial retrofit project, soil health and rainfall are less critical to project success than the supply chain of waste biomass and kiln efficiency.

A significant regulatory event occurred on July 30, 2020, when the Clean Energy Regulator issued a notice requiring the proponent to relinquish 12,177 Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs). Relinquishments of this nature can occur due to audits or recalculations of abatement baselines. The project was originally supported by a Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC102100) established in November 2015, which was completed in July 2023. Adbri has reported that their alternative fuels program has reduced natural gas usage at the facility by over 35%.