AGL, Nu-Rock to assess feasibility of repurposing coal ash

The companies want to convert industrial waste materials to construction bricks.

AGL Energy and Nu-Rock Building Products have signed a memorandum of understanding to look into the feasibility of converting coal ash into construction bricks at Bayswater power station.

The companies plan to explore recycling waste by converting large volumes of solid and liquid industrial waste materials into a range of building products.

“Our feasibility study with Nu-Rock will determine whether we can implement this technology at Bayswater, which if approved would provide up to 30 full-time local jobs for the first facility which will be the nucleus of our industrial waste cluster,” AGL COO Markus Brokhof said.

“We have a very clear plan to rejuvenate our thermal sites into low carbon industrial energy hubs, and this technology would complement those plans, as an operations-led facility at the Bayswater site reducing the volume of coal ash going to landfill.”

This is in line with AGL’s strategy to convert its thermal power station sites into an ecosystem within a circular economy.

AGL had previously announced plans to close its coal-fired power stations, with Bayswater set to close no later than 2033.

“We are working closely with AGL to develop a process to turn by-product they generate by manufacturing products that using less than 3% of the Embodied Energy to manufacture,  are carbon negative,  up to 4 hours fire-rated, up to 50% lighter and less expensive than conventional materials that cannot meet our standards, to be able to build a better future leaving no legacy by-product behind and stopping the need to quarry virgin materials to make conventional products that cannot be recycled completely at the end of their life,” Nu-Rock Founder and Managing Director George Rahme said.