After some delay, the US-Australian metals recycling concern Sims has announced a revised start-up date for its first gasification plant. The planned pilot and research facility, located at the company's Rocklea site in the Australian state of Queensland, is under construction and expected to go into operation in February 2023, group CEO Alistair Field reported last week in an analyst conference call after the release of the group's annual results. The company began pursuing energy recovery from "fluff" or shredder residue and established "Resource Renewal" as a new business area in 2019. Flooding had been responsible for the delays, Mr Field explained.
The company's first full-scale commercial plant, which would have a capacity of 120,000 tonnes of ASR (automotive shredder residue) is now slated to go online in 2025. That plant would be large enough to process the ASR from two of Sims' shredders, said Mr Field.
Sims has selected the "strategic" Pinkenba deep seaport site in the Port of Brisbane, which it acquired in May, as the preferred location for the full-scale plant, which is to be co-located with a recycling facility. The purchase of the 14-hectare site for AUD93.5m was the group's largest single investment in the past financial year, which together totalled around AUD276m (or ca. €275m)....
