CONVERTING MUNICIPAL WASTE AND COAL INTO LIQUID FUEL

Foreword

I was at the Royal Military College, Duntroon, with Senator Major General Jim Molan. He was a year ahead of me and he was a good man in every respect. Good at sports, good at his studies and he treated everyone with politeness and dignity. So it was easy to become friends with Jim and everyone else found the same. He was very popular in the military and later when he went into politics and became a Senator. I kept contact with Jim over the years and I occasionally phoned him or wrote to him to share thoughts and opinions or just to catch up socially. Jim, sadly, has now passed away, victim of an aggressive cancer. Jim and I both had grave concerns for Australia's Defence vulnerability when it came to liquid fuels. Australia only holds around 24 days in reserve and should our lines of supply be cut, Australia would have no fuel either for its domestic use or for the military. The whole country would grind to a halt, vulnerable to an invading force. So I shared this idea of converting Municipal Waste to liquid fuels of various natures. I have, in the past, as a military student and an engineer, been very interested in processes such as the Fischer-Tropsch, developed by the Germans in 1926 and used extensively by them during the 2nd World War to overcome oil embargoes, and now used in South Africa to convert coal into gasoline and dieselene.

In 2002 I wrote a concept paper and that caught the eye of some folk who were active in the petroleum industry and through them I was introduced to a catalytic conversion process being developed at the University of Queensland. In 2020, then Senator Jim Molan voiced his concerns about the state of Australia's fuel reserves and Australia's indigenous capacity to produce fuels and he took the following concept paper to the then Minister for Energy Angus Taylor. Taylor was not interested in this and he "flick" passed it to Sussan Ley, the Minister for the Environment. Ley found it all too technical so she asked her assistant, Elizabeth Warner, to write to me, advising me of various grants I might apply for if I could match these grants dollar for dollar with investors money. This incident typifies the utter incompetence of those in Government. This matter is critical to Australia's Defence capability. It should be sponsored and funded by the Department of Defence. This matter of fuel security is only the tip of the iceberg concerning Australia's utterly pathetic Defence preparedness when it comes to Strategic Defence. My hope is that this significant defence vulnerability will be appreciated, particularly by the uniformed very senior officers within Defence, and that they may exercise some influence over the Government to fund a pilot plant at a suitable Council Municipal Waste dump in order that the practicality and feasibility of this idea might be thoroughly investigated.

Executive Summary

Australia could achieve liquid-fuel self-sufficiency at a target cost of around 30 cents per litre by integrating sophisticated catalytic technologies, building on historical Fischer-Tropsch or Bergius methods and Australian innovations from the University of Queensland (UQ), and enhancing efficiency with nuclear-derived heat and hydrogen from Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs). The process utilises both carbonaceous municipal waste and abundant low-cost lignite (brown coal) as feedstocks. This approach would remedy a serious Strategic Defence vulnerability, dispose of Municipal waste in an environmentally responsible fashion, create jobs, and counter the destructive effects of misguided climate policies. Using Municipal Waste, it is likely that this approach could provide something like 3 times Australia's present usage of dieselene. Likewise, using only half of the known reserves of lignite (37 billion tonnes) in modern enhanced CTL processes would supply Australia's entire current liquid-fuel consumption for well over 130 years. When Australia’s total recoverable identified resources of lignite of around 436 billion tonnes (including sub-economic and inferred resources that become viable with improving technology and higher prices) are considered, the supply horizon extends for many centuries.

Background

Landfill Primary Means of Disposal in Australia. Disposal of household garbage is usually achieved in Australia by extracting items which are suitable for recycling from the waste before sending the remainder to landfill. In recent times, China has refused to take the extracted recyclable waste and this is causing problems for Australian authorities. As it is, the disposal of waste into landfill is a bad practice because of the potential long term environmental impacts on the water table as well as the egress of potentially harmful gases, such as dioxins and PCBs into the atmosphere.

Australia Heavily Reliant on Imported Fuels. Australia relies heavily on imported fuel to satisfy its industrial and domestic needs. Should the supply route ever be cut by a hostile power, Australia would soon consume whatever reserves it had and grind to a halt. In cooperation with US authorities an Australian strategic reserve has been established in the Eastern side of the USA, almost perfectly on the opposite side of the globe. Obtaining those reserves during hostilities will be difficult logistically and even politically. Australia consumes around 970,000 barrels per day of petrol, diesel and jet fuel, with just 24 days of reserves and limited refining capacity.

University of Queensland's Research. The University of Queensland is a world leader in catalytic conversion of carbonaceous material to liquid fuel, hydrogen and ultra-pure carbon. They have developed a means of printing novel catalytic substances in 3D so as to achieve a very large surface area in a small space. This has resulted in the ability to economically construct conversion systems that produce commercially-viable quantities of end product; in this case, ethanol, dieselene, hydrogen and ultra pure carbon.

Coal as Feedstock. Australia possesses over 75 billion tonnes of coal reserves. Brown coal (lignite) is preferred because it is abundant, low-cost, and its high water content can be recovered and used productively in the process (see below).

Proposed Concept

The proposed concept involves the adoption of a process similar to that which is commonly used in waste-to-energy plants but to take the syngas that is produced in that process and, using the catalytic systems such as the one now proven by the University of Queensland, convert the gas into liquid fuels and other useful products. This would avoid any chance of producing chemicals harmful to the environment. There are a number of possible chemical processes that should be investigated for this purpose; the UQ system being amongst the most promising.

The process mirrors both waste-to-liquids (WTL) and coal-to-liquids (CTL) pathways: gasification to syngas (CO + H₂), followed by Fischer-Tropsch synthesis and hydro-cracking into petrol, diesel and jet fuel. Australian innovations from UQ, headed by Dr Victor Rudolph, improve gasification kinetics, syngas upgrading, and FT catalysts. Impurities in waste are addressed through proven cryogenic purification techniques developed in Australia.

Efficiency is dramatically enhanced by integrating nuclear energy from Molten Salt Reactors (MSRs). High-temperature nuclear heat drives the Sulphur-Iodine thermochemical water-splitting cycle to produce hydrogen (H₂) and oxygen (O₂) with no electricity or electrodes required. An exceptionally efficient closed-loop heat-pump dryer, operating in a concentrated CO₂ inert atmosphere, dries the lignite while recovering copious water feedstock for the Sulphur-Iodine cycle. This approach delivers a coefficient of performance typically exceeding 4, conserves carbon, eliminates dust-explosion risk, and raises overall thermodynamic efficiency above 50 percent. Brown coal is particularly advantageous here because its naturally high water content becomes a valuable resource once recovered by the heat-pump system.

Hybrid facilities can switch between coal and waste feedstocks, optimising based on availability. The plants could, if desired, cleanly dispose of all plastic waste whilst keeping all ferrous and non-ferrous metal for reuse.

In my opinion we should also keep an open mind toward the Bergius process (direct coal liquefaction via high-pressure hydrogenation). If it proves to produce fuel at a lower cost than the gasification route, it could be a valuable complementary technology. Importantly, the Bergius process is also well suited to producing heavy greases and lubricants, which are essential for both industrial and defence applications.

Benefits

Produce more than enough liquid fuel to service Australia's needs. There are over 600 local government bodies in Australia. All have a need to perform garbage disposal. By perfecting a standard plant and then replicating and scaling this plant to suit the needs of each local government authority, or aggregation of authorities, it would be possible for Australia to produce significant quantities of useful fuel and, at the same time, solve the intractable problem of environmentally responsible garbage disposal and recycling. Based on the Swedish experience (one tonne of waste produces around 280 litres of dieselene equivalent) and with nuclear-enhanced conversion efficiency exceeding 50 percent, the same 54 million tonnes of core carbonaceous waste could yield well over three times Australia's current annual dieselene requirement (and potentially up to four times if the process is optimised specifically for diesel). The remaining capacity, together with abundant lignite feedstock, can easily satisfy the balance of Australia's gasoline and aviation turbine fuel needs.

Long-term Supply Security from Lignite. Australia holds approximately 74 billion tonnes of recoverable Economic Demonstrated Resources of lignite. Using only half of these reserves (37 billion tonnes) in modern enhanced CTL processes would supply Australia's entire current liquid-fuel consumption for well over 130 years. When the much larger total identified lignite resources are considered, the supply horizon extends for many centuries. This makes the concept extraordinarily robust for long-term strategic independence.

Labour Saving. In this approach to waste disposal, there is no need for households to separate their waste into recyclables and garbage. This would save the community and councils a considerable amount of time and expense.

Flexibility of UQ Catalytic Process. The UQ system is also capable of producing alkylbenzenes, alcohol and ultra-pure carbon. Australia presently consumes 1,370 million litres of automotive gasoline of all natures. Given that, of the approximately 4,500 million litres per annum capability from waste, only around 2,500 million litres per annum are needed to satisfy the requirements for diesel, this leaves substantial capacity for gasoline and aviation turbine fuel when combined with lignite feedstock. It is therefore possible this waste-to-liquid fuel infrastructure, enhanced by nuclear energy, could meet all of Australia's defence, domestic and industrial automotive and power plant needs when operated as a hybrid system.

Strategic Defence Aspect

Strategic Benefits

1. The ability of Australia to comfortably satisfy the needs of industry and the domestic market for fuel of all natures through the conversion of waste and coal to fuel would be a significant benefit from a Strategic Defence standpoint.
2. There is another aspect of this project that plays well for Strategic Defence in that these plants would be dispersed throughout Australia. This would make it difficult for an enemy to eliminate all of Australia's fuel production capability as is presently the case with conventional refineries being concentrated near a few capital cities.

Industrial Concept

Ensure Genuine Competition between Producers. To reduce risk, it is recommended that these plants be built and operated by as many Australian-owned private concerns as possible. Those companies presently involved in land-fill/waste recycling operations would be likely candidates. This would minimise industry disruption/unemployment and reduce the level of community resistance to the project. Doing this would also allow the project coordinator to tap into the intellect of many talented people familiar with the waste industry in order to produce the best possible standard solution for Australia. I don't see this being achieved in one swoop but instead that it will evolve organically over many years. Indeed, it will likely always be in a process of construction, testing and refinement.

Modular, Distributed Plants – A Strategic and Economic Possibility. Although the conventional view has been that bigger plants are always more economical, I believe modular, smaller-scale fuel-conversion units can be made economically viable and are in fact the superior choice for Australia. Factory-built, standardised modules using UQ’s 3D-printed high-surface-area catalysts can achieve near the efficiency of large plants while dramatically lowering capital costs through mass production. These units can be sited at or near multiple municipalities, reducing transport costs for both waste and fuel and creating a highly resilient, distributed network that is extremely difficult for any adversary to disable. These plants will be automated to the maximum extent possible so as to minimise operating costs. The strategic advantage of hundreds of smaller plants dotted across the country far outweighs any minor per-unit cost premium, and the ability to replicate proven modules quickly will actually drive costs down over time.

Proposal

It is proposed that the Federal Government sponsor a thorough examination of the feasibility and commercial viability of this idea. Should a paper study indicate that there is a good probability of some or all of these requirements being satisfied, the Government should, in cooperation with private industry, develop at least one pilot plant to absolutely determine this process is both feasible and commercially viable. Should this be the case, the final pilot plant would provide a template for the construction of similar plants to service the needs of every municipality in Australia. At some later stage, these operational plants could be provided as tied foreign aid to countries that have serious problems with waste disposal in Australia's strategic area of importance. India would be a prime candidate because, for strategic reasons, it is crucial Australia develop close and friendly ties with this populous, fledgling democracy as a counterpoise to the influence of the Communist Party of China.

A phased approach is recommended: start with Defence-funded paper studies and UQ lab tests, then, if the results show promise, construct prototypes. Distributed sites ensure no single point of failure, unlike concentrated refineries.

Call to Action

Australia must energetically pursue this. It should fund UQ collaborations, build prototypes, and scale nationally. I urge Senators and MPs from all Parties to champion this, overriding ideological barriers. The benefits, namely, strategic independence, economic savings, environmental gains, are immense. Ignoring this risks catastrophe; embracing it secures a prosperous and secure future for all Australians.

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