Tong Park Piggery Bioenergy Project

Tong Park Piggery Bioenergy Project is an agricultural emissions avoidance project located near Warra [3], in the Darling Downs region of Queensland, approximately 50km northwest of the major town of Dalby [7]. While the precise project area is not publicly disclosed, the physical site operates as one of the largest piggeries in Australia [3]. It was officially registered in August 2013 [9]. Note that the registered coordinates map to an area south of Brisbane (near Browns Plains/Hillcrest) [2], which is likely a corporate administrative address rather than the farm's physical location [9].

Operating under the "Destruction of Methane Generated from Manure in Piggeries-1.1" methodology, the project focuses on collecting and combusting methane generated from piggery manure [6]. This type of project typically requires covering anaerobic effluent lagoons to capture raw biogas [6]. By combusting the methane component of this captured waste gas, the project safely converts a highly potent greenhouse gas into less harmful carbon dioxide before it can enter the atmosphere [6]. The project initially commenced under an engineered biodigester method before officially transitioning to the current lagoon methodology in October 2014.

The surrounding Darling Downs region is heavily utilised for intensive agriculture, featuring extensive broadacre cropping, cattle grazing, and significant livestock operations like feedlots and piggeries. The area experiences a sub-tropical climate characterised by moderate, summer-dominant rainfall. The local environment is defined by its deep, fertile, dark cracking clay soils (vertosols), which provide a highly productive foundation for the region's agricultural industries.

The project proponent, Sunpork Commercial Piggeries Pty Ltd, successfully secured a Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC102477) with the Australian Government in May 2016 for the fixed delivery of Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) [9, 16]. This contract was officially fulfilled and completed in August 2022 [11]. Following major multi-million dollar expansions, Tong Park Piggery grew its capacity to house roughly 13,000 sows and over 130,000 pigs overall [3]. This massive scale provides a significant volume of effluent for biogas capture, not only generating carbon credits but also driving the facility towards complete power independence [3].