Cessnock Landfill Gas Project

Cessnock Landfill Gas Project is a landfill gas capture project located at the Cessnock Waste Management Centre, roughly 50km west of Newcastle in the Hunter Region of New South Wales. It was registered in December 2013 and covers an unspecified area size.

Landfill gas projects operate by installing or maintaining a gas collection system to capture methane-rich emissions generated by the anaerobic decomposition of legacy and non-legacy organic waste. The captured methane is then combusted, either via flaring or through bioelectricity generation engines, converting it into less potent carbon dioxide and preventing it from entering the atmosphere.

The regional environment in Cessnock experiences a sub-tropical to temperate climate with reliable, moderate rainfall. Soils in the broader region vary from fertile alluvial deposits along the floodplains to sandy loams, podzolic soils, and clays across the undulating slopes. Because of these conditions, the broader Cessnock area is highly diverse in its land use, supporting the world-renowned Hunter Valley viticulture industry, livestock grazing, native forestry, and some coal mining.

The project is managed by LMS Energy Pty Ltd, Australia's largest bioenergy and landfill gas operator, which pioneered the country's first commercial landfill biogas project in 1982. This specific operation transitioned from an early, revoked carbon farming method and was subsequently updated to the 2015 landfill gas methodology. A significant milestone for the Cessnock project is the successful completion of a fixed delivery carbon abatement contract (CAC164941) with the Australian Government in October 2021, fulfilling its commitment to supply contracted carbon abatement.