At Bantaeng in South Sulawesi and Kwinana in
Western Australia new industrial scale ports will be built to serve
the industrial precincts at these locations. At both these sites a 1-
2Mtpa GPC plant is proposed for precast production of some 1,600
port modules as well as other infrastructure requiring some 750,000
cum of concrete and thereafter the plant can be repurposed for other
products for local markets such as reef modules and wall panels.
Geopolymer concrete can be the replacement for conventional
concrete and be made from waste-derived materials while having a
lower carbon footprint. The plant is designed to be operated by
renewable energy and an energy audit estimated that a 1Mtpa
geopolymer production plant needs up to 200 GWh pa to operate.
This could be served by 6-10 on-land wind turbines combined with
solar PV farm at a total cost $45-55 million USD. The electricity
generated @ say $100/MWh was worth $12-20M pa that could
result in a payback of 2-5 years. In Kwinana, planning is already
underway for a large wind farm as part of the overall
decarbonisation strategy for this industrial precinct. Feedstock
materials can be harnessed for use in the geopolymer production
plant by means of Circularity Hubs. These hubs can be established
through the KIC4 and 6-Capitals models of Industrial Symbiosis and
to optimise the proposed geopolymer plant within the industrial
precincts at Bantaeng and Kwinana. Such an approach can
contribute to Regenerative Development when both of the ports are
built.