At a Glance

The precise scope of the Monash Energy Project is subject to continual refinement as the project progresses through its development stages, so this description is offered as a guide rather than a definitive account.

The core of the project is a large scale commercial plant in Victoria’s Latrobe Valley drawing coal from its own mine and then drying and gasifying the coal for conversion into transport fuels. This is a multi-step process in which raw coal is dried, processed in a gasifier to produce a synthetic gas (syngas), which after treatment and enrichment is reacted to form synthetic hydrocarbon products.

As the accompanying diagram shows, the production process also allows for the extraction of CO2 produced during the enrichment of the synthetic gas. Monash Energy is therefore working in parallel with the development of the plant and mine to develop the requisite infrastructure for carbon capture and storage, to be governed by an effective regulatory regime.