The right project at the right time for South Australia
The rationale for the Arckaringa Project is easily expressed:
- South Australia faces a shortage of base load power, fuel and water, both generally and for the mining sector
- The Arckaringa Project is ideally located to help meet these needs
- The Project shapes up as cost competitive and environmentally sustainable.
The Arckaringa Project will involve:
- A mine producing three times more coal annually than Leigh Creek
- A processing and refining complex with the footprint of Moomba
- A power plant larger than Port Augusta
- Making available more water than the rest of the Far North combined.
- A secure source of diesel fuel to replace imports
- An expanded and upgraded electricity supply network
- A boost to economic activity in regional towns, including Coober Pedy and Oodnadatta.
Clean CTL fuels (diesel, jet fuel) are in demand and free of refinery
product margins.
Arckaringa will:
- Provide a secure source of supply for local and overseas markets
- Boost South Australia’s exports to Asia.
Ideally situated to tackle South Australia’s major domestic power and fuel shortage, Arckaringa will:
- Enhance fuel security for Australia
- Assist with stabilisation of Australian fuel markets through import replacement
- Help make South Australia and Northern Territory self sufficient in diesel fuel.
A successful Coal to Liquid project depends crucially on location advantages to give it a competitive edge in operating costs and marketing. Several factors are converging to make South Australia and the Arckaringa region a particularly attractive location for a CTL and power project.
- Political and economic stability, which is critical to the success of long life, high capital cost projects
- Abundant and technically suitable coal resources
- Reliable infrastructure such as the Adelaide - Darwin rail and road links, which transect Altona’s coal tenements
- Growing markets for fuels and power, plus industrial process inputs such as sulphur, water and chemicals.
CTL is a prime example of clean coal technology - the associated combined cycle units produce negligible SOx, significantly less NOx and 10 - 20% less CO2 per unit of power generated than a conventional coal fired plant. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) offers the potential to reduce the overall greenhouse gas emissions from CTL to below the “well to wheel” level of fuels derived from crude oil.
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