Vision

To bring to commercial reality an integrated profitable large scale bio-oil business that sustainably extracts energy and other resources from renewable feedstocks.

Mission

Our Corporate approach is to grow safely and build respect and teamwork within the working environment and in harmony with the community. Our purpose is to advance waste reduction with recycle into useful products.

History

Muradel is a proprietary Company limited by shares, founded in December 2010 by the University of Adelaide, Murdoch University and the majority shareholder SQC Pty Ltd, which is solely funded by Aban Australia Pty Ltd (part of the Ausker Group of Companies).

The Muradel Demonstration Plant (MDP) in Whyalla, South Australia, was funded by shareholders and a grant of AUD$4.4 million from the Australian Renewable Energy Agency's (ARENA) Advanced Biofuels Investment Readiness program (Funding Agreement number Q00150). Construction began in late 2013 and the plant, staffed by experienced, technically trained operators, became operational in mid 2014.

Muradel Demonstration Plant

The Muradel Demonstration Plant (MDP) at Whyalla, South Australia, was constructed during the first half of 2014, and commissioned in July 2014. The MDP was officially opened on the 31 October 2014 by the Hon Geoff Brock, Member for Frome, Minister for Regional Development and Minister for Local Government in South Australia, and the Whyalla City Council Mayor Jim Pollock.

Muradel provides a unique approach to sludge and biosolids management for the wastewater treatment industry. Our Green2Black™ solution combines proprietary technologies to sustainably manage sludges and biosolids producing a unique range of marketable products. Green2Black™ has a small footprint and can be co-located at wastewater treatment plants where sludge can be continuously fed through the process and converted into sustainable oils, inorganics and water. The available market for Green2Black's products is dependent on the composition of the sludge and will be evaluated on a case by case basis.

Technology

The technology developed and deployed by Muradel is innovative and provides a novel pathway for production of renewable biofuel; a pathway that does not compete with agriculture for nutrients or water and does not involve land-use change.

The Green2Black™ technology platform used for processing sludge consists of three main continuously operated processes: pre-treatment (thickening), conversion (hydrothermal liquefaction), and post-treatment (fractionation and extraction). Pre-treatment uniforms particle size (in the case of biosolids) providing a slurry of ~30% w/w solids. The conversion process takes place in a sub-critical water reactor operating at ~350^oC and ~200bar, where hydrothermal liquefaction of the organic content occurs producing hydrocarbons. The resultant reactor product is termed kerogen, which is a combination of hydrocarbons, inorganics (particulate and soluble), water and CO₂. Fractionation of the products occurs in the post-treatment processes, producing biocrude oil, fertilizers, pure CO₂, lightweight aggregates and water. Typically 60% of the organic fraction is converted into biocrude oil. The biocrude oil is chemically identical to fossil crude oil. A dry weight tonne of sludge at ~80% w/w organic mass will convert into ~3 barrels of renewable biocrude oil, with an energy content of ~30MJ/kg.

The suite of patents associated with the Green2BlackTM technology provides surety that the technology has the potential to be licensed nationally and internationally in urban, rural and remote locations.