Foy Group is building a case to convince ACT authorities of the safety of a proposed plastics-to-fuel plant in Hume.
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The company has commissioned a study by University of Sydney chemical engineers to counter concerns about emissions and explosion risk raised by the ACT government health panel charged with investigating the proposal.
The Foy-funded study, led by University of Sydney Associate Professor Ali Abbas, is a pyrolysis kiln test for emissions analysis likely to take 12 months to complete with the university's school of chemical and biomolecular engineering.
Foy chairman Paul Dickson said the study would demonstrate the company's desire to work with the ACT government and prove the world-first technology was effective and safe.
However, he said Australia had become "become complacent and narrowly focused" in its attitude toward the worldwide problem of growing waste.
"We have a solution now that we are taking to the world," Mr Dickson said. "As a proud Australian company, it is disappointing to us that our technology will solve the plastics problem of other countries before our own"
Mr Dickson said the company was disappointed with the panel's report and felt it included "demonstrable inconsistencies and inaccuracies that appear to have led the panel to form a basis of recommendations that are flawed in fact."
Foy's bid to build a similar facility on the NSW Central Coast was rejected last year by the NSW Environmental Protection Authority because of the lack of data from any existing facilities, as the scheme's technology is new.
The NSW EPA urged the ACT government to take a "precautionary approach" with Foy's proposal in Canberra - a secondary blow to the bid which has been the target of opposition residents in the surrounding Tuggeranong region and the Queanbeyan-Palerang Council.
NSW EPA regional director Gary Whytcross' submission to the ACT health panel raised concerns about the difficulty excluding contaminants from the feedstock waste and the dangers of such contaminants creating dioxins and furans and emitting them and heavy metals in exhaust gasses.
Mr Dickson contends this area of the health report was not accurately covered.
He said rigorous controls were part of the proposal for the ACT scheme and included testing of plastics on arrival, x-ray and infrared analysis of samples, as well as a system shutdown triggered by the detection of heavy metals would prevent noxious emissions.
A spokesman for the Environment Minister Mick Gentleman said the government stood by the health report within the environmental impact statement process and the minister stood by his earlier comment that the ACT government "would be extremely unlikely to approve a development application... in view of the findings."
"If Foy wants to submit new evidence in order to attempt to proceed with the proposal, they would need to start the EIS process again," the spokesman said.
"The concerns raised by the panel were significant so a significant body of evidence would need to be presented."
