Nickel Refinery Supplying Food Grade Carbon Dioxide to Utility Gas Provider

Summary

Since 1990 an industrial gas producer and supplier (Air Liquide) purifies and compresses process carbon dioxide received from the Kwinana Nickel Refinery (Nickel West) and other industrial facilities in the Kwinana Industrial Area to a standard that it can be used as food grade CO2 for use in soft–drinks and beer. Carbon dioxide is also used for other uses such as in dry ice and water treatment, often at much lower price. This initiative reduces the emissions of carbon dioxide to atmosphere, while also avoiding energy use that would otherwise be required to produce CO2 from air.

Industry

Industry Sector	Specific Industry
mining and minerals sector	nickel refinery
utility gas sector	producer and supplier of industrial gases

Region

Kwinana Industrial Area, Kwinana, Western Australia

Applied Technologies

gas purification

Triple Bottom Line Aspects (direct at operational level)

Economic	Nickel refinery and industrial gas company receive financial income from otherwise emitted CO₂ emissions capital and operational costs to purify CO₂ from chemical plant
Environmental	proportion of CO₂ emissions from nickel refinery are no longer emitted to the atmosphere avoidance of energy use that would otherwise be required to produce CO₂ from air
Social	increased employee satisfaction due to improved environmental performance of nickel refinery

Additional Comments

None.

References

van Beers, D, Bossilkov, A and van Berkel, R (2005) “Capturing Regional Synergies in the Kwinana Industrial Area – 2005 Status Report”, CSRP Report (for Project 3B1), August 2005

Last Update

31 October 2005