12 companies have shared in over $2.4 million in government grants from the Re-tooling for Climate Change program. One of the companies includes Rapid Aluminium who received a government grant of $81,622. Rapid is a major distributor and finisher of an extensive range of aluminium profiles and extrusions for the architectural and commercial building industry. They will use the government grant to install a water recovery and reuse for powdercoating pre-treatment production lines.
“The project will ensure the permanent installation of a water recovery system and creation of a closed loop system of water reuse for the pre-treatment lines with the permanent disconnection of the lines from the trade waste system.”
The Re-tooling for Climate Change program will help small and medium sized Australian manufacturers reduce their environmental footprint, through projects that improve the energy and/or water efficiency of their production processes. The program provides government grants of between $10,000 and $500,000, up to a maximum of half of the cost of each project.
Government grant applications may be submitted at any time and will be assessed on a regular basis by Innovation Australia. An applicant may commence work on their project once AusIndustry has reviewed its application and confirmed that it is complete and eligible. However, there is no guarantee of funding support unless and until an offer of grant is made and a grant agreement signed.
| State | Company | Grant | Project Title | Project Description |
| NSW | Boss Engineering | $38,247 | Capture rainwater for use in Boss Engineering’s manufacturing facility | The project involves the installation of a rainwater capture system at Boss Engineering’s Inverell plant. The harvested water will be used in the surface preparation process for engineering components. |
| NSW | Ferrero Australasia Manufacturing | $550,000 | Installation of 830kW natural gas fuelled cogeneration system | The project involves the installation of a 830kW cogeneration system to generate both electricity and steam, displacing grid electricity use and existing steam boiler fuel consumption. |
| QLD | Fresco Cheese Co | $34,925 | Cheese cooling using continuously refrigerated recirculated water | Currently tap water is used to cool mozzarella style cheese which is then released as waste water. The project intends to recirculate this water through a heat exchanger unit fed by chilled water pumped from a tank connected to a refrigeration unit. |
| QLD | Gelita Australia | $550,000 | Minimisation of the environmental footprint of Australian gelatine manufacturing through improved energy and water treatment efficiencies | The project involves systemic and innovative restructure of the waste treatment process to reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. |
| QLD | Rockcote Enterprises | $76,401 | Rainwater capture for use in manufacturing process | The project involves the installation of a rainwater harvesting and treatment system to replace mains water consumption in the production of paints and textured coatings. |
| SA | Bickfords Australia | $12,234 | Night air compressor | The project proposes to install an 11kW air compressor for maintaining critical services during non-productive hours, and upgrade the air receiver capacity to allow for a lower overall working pressure. |
| SA | Detmold Packaging | $42,818 | Redesign of production facility lighting | The project involves the redesign of production facility lighting stations to redistribute, reduce and replace existing fittings with a high efficiency system. |
| SA | New Castalloy | $45,403 | Chrome plant waste water reuse project | The project will reduce mains water usage through the recovery and reuse of treated waste water from the plant’s chrome rinsing process. |
| SA | Techno-Plas | $450,340 | Energy reduction project for high volume laboratory consumable product manufacturing cell | Re-design and re-engineering of the laboratory consumable production process to rationalise the number of manufacturing cells by 40%, replace hydraulic injection moulding machines with energy efficient electric machines and introduce new mould tooling. |
| TAS | Cascade Brewery Company | $550,000 | Cascade Brewery’s natural gas boiler conversion project | The project involves replacing existing coal fired boilers and standby diesel fired boilers with three multi-fuel boilers. The new boilers will run on natural gas and also have the capability to run on biogas. |
| VIC | Rapid Aluminium | $81,622 | Water recovery and reuse for powdercoating pre-treatment production lines | The project will ensure the permanent installation of a water recovery system and creation of a closed loop system of water reuse for the pre-treatment lines with the permanent disconnection of the lines from the trade waste system. |
| WA | Doral Mineral Sands | $22,638 | Process Improvement – installation of TTC wet table | The project involves the installation of a wet table (gravity processing equipment) to process middlings produced during the mineral separation process. By processing the middlings on a wet table it will eliminate the need for stockpiling and reprocessing, improving the energy efficiency and mineral recovery of the separation plant. |