Tong Park Piggery Bioenergy Project

The Tong Park Piggery Bioenergy Project is a waste management and emissions reduction initiative located at SunPork's Tong Park facility near Warra in the Western Downs region of Queensland. While the project's registered coordinates point to an area near Greenbank in outer Brisbane (likely a corporate address), the physical bioenergy facility operates at the commercial piggery situated approximately 250km west of Brisbane and 50km northwest of Dalby. The project was registered in August 2013 and operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) methodology for destroying methane generated from manure.

The region surrounding Warra and the Western Downs is characterized by extensive agriculture, including broadacre cropping (cotton, sorghum, wheat) and intensive livestock grazing. The environment is classified as semi-arid to sub-tropical with highly variable rainfall, averaging around 600mm annually. The landscape is dominated by the fertile, cracking clay soils (vertosols) typical of the Darling Downs, which support significant agricultural output but require careful management.

This project reduces greenhouse gas emissions by capturing methane, a potent greenhouse gas, released from pig manure. The manure is directed into covered anaerobic lagoons where biogas is trapped rather than vented into the atmosphere. This captured gas is then combusted, often to generate renewable electricity for the farm's operations. SunPork has reported that its biogas plants, including the one at Tong Park, generate approximately 5.7 GWh of electricity per year, significantly offsetting the facility's energy demand. The Tong Park piggery itself is one of the largest in Australia, having undergone major expansions to house over 13,000 sows.