Dyno Nobel Moranbah Deaerator Energy Recovery Project

The Dyno Nobel Moranbah Deaerator Energy Recovery Project is an industrial energy efficiency project located at the Dyno Nobel Ammonium Nitrate manufacturing facility, approximately 5km north-west of the town of Moranbah in Central Queensland. Registered in January 2017, the project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Industrial Electricity and Fuel Efficiency) Methodology Determination 2015.

The project is situated in the heart of the Bowen Basin, a region heavily characterized by coal mining operations and extensive cattle grazing. The surrounding environment is typical of the Brigalow Belt bioregion, featuring a semi-arid to sub-tropical climate with hot summers and distinct dry seasons. The local terrain consists largely of cracking clay soils, known as Vertosols or "black soils," which are highly fertile but prone to significant movement with moisture changes.

The primary activity of this project involves waste heat capture and re-use within the facility's steam generation system. A deaerator is a device used to remove dissolved gases, such as oxygen, from boiler feedwater to prevent corrosion; this process typically requires heating the water to near-boiling temperatures. By installing equipment to recover waste heat from other chemical processes at the plant, likely the exothermic reactions involved in ammonia or nitric acid production, the project reduces the amount of natural gas or other fuels required to heat the deaerator. This modification directly lowers the facility's Scope 1 emissions by improving the thermal efficiency of its existing industrial equipment.