Rivalea Bungowannah Piggery Biogas Project

Rivalea Bungowannah Piggery Biogas Project is an animal effluent management project located at Bungowannah, approximately 16km north-west of Albury in the Riverina region of New South Wales. It was registered in January 2013 and covers an unknown area. The Bungowannah region is known for its rural and agricultural land use, predominantly featuring pastoral grazing, broadacre cropping, and intensive livestock farming such as piggeries. The environment is characterized by a temperate climate with moderate, winter-dominant rainfall averaging between 600mm and 750mm annually. The area's soils are predominantly texture-contrast soils, specifically Chromosols and Sodosols, which feature loamy topsoils over heavier clay subsoils.

Animal effluent management projects are designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by treating waste from intensive livestock operations. Under this methodology, emissions are treated by destruction or avoidance. This specific project actively collects methane generated from piggery manure in covered anaerobic lagoons and combusts it. This process prevents methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas, from freely entering the atmosphere and allows the captured gas to be used as a renewable energy source to generate electricity, offsetting the facility's reliance on fossil fuels.

An interesting note about this project is its ownership history and strategic importance. The facility was originally owned and operated by the vertically integrated pork producer Rivalea. In 2021, the global meat processing giant JBS Australia expanded its operations by acquiring Rivalea for $175 million. As a result, the project now operates under JBS Pork Australia Pty Ltd, aligning with their corporate sustainability goals to operate wastewater methane recovery plants and reduce their overall carbon footprint. Furthermore, the biogas project has transitioned through multiple methodology variations over the years (in 2013, 2020, and 2026) to ensure it complies with the latest standards under the Australian Carbon Credit Unit (ACCU) scheme.