Capture and Combustion of Landfill Gas from Willawong Landfill Project

Capture and Combustion of Landfill Gas from Willawong Landfill Project is a landfill gas electricity generation project located at Willawong, approximately 16km south of the Brisbane CBD in Queensland. It was registered in March 2013 and has an unspecified project area size.

Electricity Generation from Landfill Gas projects involve installing and operating a collection system to capture methane emissions generated by decomposing organic waste. The captured methane is then combusted to generate renewable electricity, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and supplying dispatchable power to the grid.

The Willawong area is primarily utilized for urban, industrial, and historical waste management activities. The region experiences a humid subtropical climate characterized by moderate to high rainfall, averaging over 1000mm annually. While soils in the broader Brisbane area typically consist of clays and loams, the immediate project footprint sits on modified, engineered landfill surfaces.

This project has transitioned through multiple methodology variations over its lifespan, continuing to process both legacy and non-legacy waste. Notably, during the 2022 Queensland floods, Brisbane City Council reopened parts of the closed Willawong landfill to accommodate the massive influx of flood cleanup waste. Proponent LGI Limited rapidly modified and installed new biogas infrastructure to capture methane from this new refuse. The system maintained continuous flaring and power generation throughout the disaster, providing essential renewable electricity to the local network when it was most needed. Furthermore, Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) generated by this facility have been purchased by organizations like the University of Queensland Art Museum to offset their operational greenhouse gas emissions.