Rivalea Bungowannah Piggery Biogas Project

The Rivalea Bungowannah Piggery Biogas Project is an animal effluent management project located in Bungowannah, New South Wales, approximately 16km northwest of the major regional city of Albury. Registered in January 2013, the project operates within the wider Riverina region, an area heavily utilised for mixed farming, grazing, and intensive agriculture. The facility captures and combusts methane generated from piggery manure, preventing it from being released into the atmosphere.

This project operates under the Animal Effluent Management methodology. Standard operations for this project type involves covering anaerobic lagoons, ponds used to treat manure, with impermeable membranes. As the waste breaks down, it produces biogas rich in methane. Instead of venting this potent greenhouse gas, the system captures it and channels it into a combustion device, such as a flare or an internal combustion engine, to generate renewable electricity and heat.

The Bungowannah region experiences a temperate climate with moderate rainfall, typically averaging between 600mm and 700mm annually. The local landscape is characterised by Red Chromosols (also known as red-brown earths), which are widespread in the Riverina and considered highly productive for agriculture. These soils generally consist of a sandy or loamy topsoil overlying a clay subsoil, supporting the region's diverse farming activities.

An interesting feature of this project is its integration into the broader operations of JBS Pork Australia, which acquired the original proponent, Rivalea, in 2022. The biogas captured from the covered lagoons is utilized in Combined Heat and Power (CHP) units, reportedly generating a significant portion of the site's electricity requirements. This "closed-loop" energy system not only reduces the facility's reliance on the grid but also offsets thousands of tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions each year.