Capture and Combustion of Landfill Gas from Saltwater Creek Landfill, Maryborough, QLD

Capture and Combustion of Landfill Gas from Saltwater Creek Landfill is a landfill gas electricity generation project located at a mid-sized regional landfill in Maryborough, Queensland. It was registered in December 2013. The exact area of the project is undefined, but it encompasses the active waste operations footprint at the Saltwater Creek site.

Landfill gas projects utilizing the electricity generation method involve installing a new gas collection system or upgrading an existing one to capture biogas generated by decomposing organic waste. The captured methane is then combusted in a generator to produce dispatchable, renewable electricity. This process reduces the greenhouse gas emissions of the captured gas by 28 times compared to simply allowing it to vent into the atmosphere.

The Maryborough area features a moist subtropical climate with relatively high, summer-dominant rainfall. The surrounding region's land use is a varied mix of urban areas, forestry operations, sugarcane cropping, and cattle grazing on both native and sown pastures. The soils in the broader catchment are typically sandy Podosols with low water-holding capacity, running alongside Dermosols, Kurosols, and alluvial soils found near the watercourses.

This project, managed by proponent LGI Limited, transitioned from a revoked Carbon Farming Initiative (CFI) method and continues to capture gas generated at the landfill from both legacy and non-legacy waste. To achieve this, LGI Limited installed a 1.7MW generator at the site, which currently operates with a 30% baseline. The project successfully completed its initial carbon abatement contract (CAC342427) which was established when the project was first contracted in December 2013, and has since varied its methodology to the current 2021 Electricity Generation from Landfill Gas determination.