Bright goes down under: partnering with Eneraque to build Australia’s First Biomethane to grid Facility

Sydney, AUSTRALIA – Bright Biomethane goes down under! Partnering with the Australian owned and operated clean energy infrastructure and equipment provider Eneraque, Bright will build its first biogas upgrader in Australia for energy company Jemena at the Sydney Malabar wastewater treatment site. Biogas from Sydney Water will be purified to biomethane for distribution through the grid. The Malabar Biomethane Project is expected to be completed in 2022 and is claimed to be ‘Australia’s first’ biomethane gas grid injection project.

“This is a great development of biomethane production and deployment in Australia and an acknowledgment of Bright’s growing worldwide presence,” says Jeffrey Kruit, area sales engineer of Bright and adds: “Those involved visited our wastewater-to-biomethane facility in the Netherlands pre-Corona. We are proud to bring our Dutch technology now to Australia in an excellent collaboration with Eneraque”.

Eneraque, headquartered in Australia, specializes in the development and implementation of water treatment and energy systems. “It is excellent how this project came about. We are looking forward to future projects with Bright and to grow biomethane production and use across the country”, says Jeremy Pringle, director of Eneraque.

Clean energy from sludge

With a capacity of 1,100 Nm³/hr ingoing biogas, the system is counted as a PurePac Grand in Bright’s modular biogas upgrading systems range. The biogas upgrading facility will upgrade the raw biogas from the anaerobic digestion process of sludges at the wastewater treatment plant in Sydney, considered to be Australia’s largest one. Biomethane is the end-product: a renewable gas compliant with Natural Gas specification which will be distributed through Jemena’s gas network to thousands of Sydney homes and businesses for cooking, heating, and hot water.

This biomethane project is initiated by Jemena and Sydney Water with the support of ARENA (Australian Renewable Energy Agency) and will be realized by Bright Biomethane in collaboration with Eneraque.