Arabic version: منشأة نفايات كاندوس تواجه تحدياً لقواعد نيو ساوث ويلز
According to ABC News, Cenagen is proposing a $1 billion waste-processing redevelopment at the former Kandos Cement Works near Mudgee, but the New South Wales government says the project is an energy-from-waste facility barred from the location. The company is preparing to advance its planning process as residents weigh potential jobs against concerns for the area.
If approved, the facility would process 450,000 tonnes of landfill-bound rubbish each year through gasification. Cenagen says the process would expose waste to temperatures of up to 1,000 degrees Celsius in a low-oxygen sealed system, producing synthesis gas containing hydrogen, carbon monoxide and dioxide. The company says those chemicals would be used to make 91,000 tonnes of methanol annually as a lower-emission alternative to fossil-based transport fuels.
Environment Minister Penny Sharpe said in a letter to MLC Stephen Lawrence that, based on available information, it was unlikely Cenagen’s proposed activities would be allowed under the state framework and that there was no alternative approval pathway. The framework limits thermal waste treatment involving energy recovery to Parkes, West Lithgow, Tarago and Tomago. The EPA said Kandos is not in an approved precinct and said its representatives told Cenagen in meetings in August 2024 and July 2026 that the proposal would likely be prohibited.
Cenagen chief executive Jason O’Sullivan disputed the characterisation, saying the technology does not rely on combustion like energy-from-waste incinerators and that the issue would come down to statutory interpretation. He said the company believed it was exempt from the prohibition. A scoping report has been submitted to the NSW Planning Department and is awaiting publication. Cenagen says the development could create up to 350 full-time jobs, while 1,000 tonnes of waste a day would be delivered by rail, largely from Sydney and regional centres.
The proposal has divided Kandos and nearby Rylstone. Winery operator Will De Beaurepaire and Kandos resident Marella Harris raised concerns about emissions and tourism. Local historian Buzz Sanderson said the project could help address the loss felt after the cement works closed in 2011, when 64 people lost their jobs. The site operated for 95 years and supplied cement used for the Sydney Harbour Bridge pylons between 1928 and 1932.
