Australia Refinery Cogeneration Plant Completed

A new $40.6 million cogeneration plant at BP Australia Ltd’s Bulwer Island refinery would have a greenhouse gas emissions benefit of 90,000 tons a year, Queensland deputy premier Jim Elder said yesterday.

The cogeneration plant, a joint venture of Origin Energy Ltd Lend Lease Corp Ltd and Atco Power , opened yesterday and has capacity of 32 megawatts of electrical power and 55 MW of thermal energy as steam.

Cogeneration is the production of electricity and steam energy from a single fuel source, giving improved energy conversion efficiency.

The plant will supply 90 percent of the electricity and 75 percent of the steam needs for the BP Amoco Plc unit refinery, which is completing a $270 million upgrade to produce cleaner fuels and boost capacity to 88,000 barrels per day.

Any excess power from the plant not used by BP would be sold back into the National Electricity Market, Elder said.

The cogeneration plant will be supplied with gas from Origin’s coal seam methane fields in Queensland’s Bowen Basin under a 20-year agreement with the refinery.