Ipswich Landfill Gas Project

The Ipswich Landfill Gas Project is a waste sector carbon abatement project located at the Cleanaway New Chum Landfill in the industrial suburb of New Chum, Queensland. The site is situated approximately 5km southeast of the Ipswich city centre and 30km southwest of Brisbane. Registered in February 2013, the project is operated by LMS Energy Pty Ltd and involves the capture and combustion of landfill gas from one of South East Queensland's major waste management facilities.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Electricity Generation from Landfill Gas) Methodology Determination 2021. This methodology allows proponents to earn Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) by collecting methane, a potent greenhouse gas generated by decomposing organic waste, and combusting it in electricity generation units. By converting methane into carbon dioxide and generating renewable energy that displaces fossil-fuel-based grid electricity, the project achieves a dual abatement benefit.

The New Chum area is a designated industrial zone characterized by open-cut coal mining history and large-scale waste management infrastructure. The region experiences a humid subtropical climate with significant summer rainfall, which can accelerate waste decomposition rates. The local terrain sits atop the Ipswich Coal Measures, consisting primarily of sedimentary rocks like shale and sandstone, with soils that are largely clay-based and heavily modified by historical mining and landfilling activities.

A notable aspect of this project is its regulatory history; it has transitioned through multiple versions of the methodology, starting with the 2012 Legacy Waste determination, moving to the 2015 Landfill Gas method, and finally adopting the 2021 Electricity Generation method. The project successfully completed a Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC783640) with the Australian Government in April 2022. LMS Energy, the proponent, is a leading bioenergy company in Australia, often partnering with landfill owners like Cleanaway to install and operate the gas capture infrastructure while the landfill owner manages the waste operations.