Bowen tips another $91m into industrial emissions abatement, but coal grant cops flack

A more energy efficient aluminium smelter, electrification at an oil refinery, and an Australia-first demonstration of coal pollution abatement technology are among the latest round of projects to win federal government funding to help cut industrial emissions.

Federal energy minister Chris Bowen on Friday announced the latest round of grants from Labor’s Powering the Regions Fund – a total of $91 million to six projects to help clean up the act of some of Australia’s biggest emitters.

Queensland’s coal sector is among the key beneficiaries this time around, with $37.2 million awarded to Kestrel Coal to cut methane emissions from an underground metallurgical coal mine in the Bowen Basin.

Minister Bowen says the funding for the Kestrel Mine Ventilation Air Methane Abatement Project will allow for the novel regenerative thermal oxidation technology to be demonstrated at scale for the first time in Australia.

Also in the Bowen Basin, $9.8 million will go to the Dyno Nobel ammonium nitrate facility, to cut nitrous oxide emissions in ammonium nitrate production by a catalytic emissions reduction reactor and deployment of purge gas capture technologies.

A $28 million grant will go to Incitec Pivot Fertilisers in Phosphate Hill in Queensland, to install a solar and battery storage system, while $5.4 million has been awarded to the Boyne Aluminium Smelter in Gladstone, to make energy efficiency upgrades.

In Western Australia, a sodium cyanide plant operated by CSBP Limited in Kwinana will get $7.5 million to install a low emissions waste gas incinerator, while in Victorian, the Viva Energy Refinery in Geelong has been granted $3 million towards electrification of its operations.

“These industries have traditionally been very energy intensive and hard to abate. These grants will help them make their fair contribution to our national targets,” Bowen said in a statement on Friday.

“The grants unlock technologies that have not been deployed at scale in Australia, including cutting methane from the ventilation air shafts of underground coal mines.”

Not everyone is thrilled with federal funding being handed to coal projects, however, with the Australian Conservation Foundation arguing that the fossil fuel sector should foot the bill to clean up its act.

“It’s great to see the federal government helping industrial and manufacturing facilities make the switch to more efficient and cost-effective clean processes, reducing reliance on outdated fossil fuels,” the ACF’s national climate policy adviser Annika Reynolds said on Friday.

“This sort of investment is vital for Gladstone, Kwinana, Geelong and other industrial centres so energy intensive sectors can remain internationally competitive and continue to provide jobs for workers while being part of the clean energy transition.

“We are, however, disappointed by the government’s decision to provide one of these grants to the Kestrel underground coal mine in the Bowen Basin.

“While the $37 million grant will help the mine reduce ventilation methane emissions – a significant and under-reported source of climate pollution in Australia – ACF believes the public should not foot the bill on a technology upgrade for a mine that is seeking approval to extend its operations to 2050.

“There should be no further government handouts to fossil fuels; it’s time for the coal mining sector get on with reducing its own emissions.

“We urge the federal government to keep investing in the clean industries that will power Australia’s future.”

“A number of the projects cut nitrous oxide, which has 265 times more warming potential than CO2. By demonstrating these technologies, they can more quickly be rolled out across Australian industry.”