Maitland Landfill Gas Project

Maitland Landfill Gas Project is a landfill gas capture and combustion project located approximately 4km north-east of Cessnock and 18km south-west of Maitland in the Hunter Valley region of New South Wales. It was registered in March 2014 and covers the operational footprint of the municipal waste facility.

Landfill gas projects involve installing a network of extraction wells to collect methane-rich biogas produced by decomposing organic matter. Standard requirements under the methodology dictate that the captured gas must be combusted, either by flaring or through use in a bioenergy generator, to prevent the potent greenhouse gas from entering the atmosphere. Project proponents are also required to continuously measure the volume and methane concentration of the combusted gas to accurately calculate the carbon abatement achieved.

The surrounding Hunter Valley area is characterised by coal mining operations, viticulture, cattle grazing, and state forestry. The region experiences a moderate to high rainfall climate, with environmental conditions supporting soils that primarily consist of deep alluvial clays on the floodplains and residual clay loams on the ridges.

The project is managed by LMS Energy Pty Ltd, one of Australia’s largest bioenergy and carbon abatement companies, and captures emissions from both legacy and non-legacy waste. Notably, the project transitioned from an earlier, now-revoked 'CFI' legacy waste method to the 2015 methodology. It was also contracted under an aggregated Carbon Abatement Contract (CAC164941) with the Australian Government, alongside other LMS Energy sites, which was successfully completed in October 2021 after delivering over 385,000 tonnes of abatement.