Stuart Landfill Gas Project

Stuart Landfill Gas Project is a landfill gas emissions avoidance project located at the Stuart Waste Facility, approximately 12 kilometres southeast of the Townsville CBD in Queensland. It was registered in August 2013, and while the exact project area size is unknown, it operates across the footprint of the Townsville region's primary waste management facility.

Landfill gas projects involve installing a network of extraction wells and pipes to capture methane gas generated by the decomposition of organic waste in an oxygen-poor environment. A standard requirement of the methodology is the destruction of this captured methane, typically through flaring or electricity generation, which converts it into carbon dioxide and water to significantly reduce its overall global warming potential.

The immediate Stuart area is heavily industrial, situated near the Mount Stuart Power Station and Sun Metals Zinc Refinery, while broader regional land use is known for cattle grazing. The region features a dry tropical savanna climate with high-intensity summer monsoon rainfall and long, dry winters. Soils in these coastal plains are generally heavy clays and duplex soils that are highly reactive and prone to waterlogging.

This transitioning project captures gas from both legacy waste (deposited before the scheme's baseline dates) and non-legacy waste, transitioning from a previously revoked Carbon Farming Initiative method. Developed by LMS Energy in partnership with the Townsville City Council, the site is also known as the Stuart Bio-Energy Facility. While initially reliant solely on gas flaring, recent site expansions outline the installation of generator modules to convert the captured methane into renewable electricity that will feed directly into the local power grid. Additionally, the project held a Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC164941) for 385,393 tonnes of fixed delivery abatement with the Commonwealth, which was successfully completed in October 2021.