Newline Road Landfill Gas Capture and Combustion Project

Newline Road Landfill Gas Capture and Combustion Project is a landfill gas operation located at the Newline Road Waste Facility in Raymond Terrace, approximately 25 kilometers north of Newcastle, New South Wales. The project was registered in July 2015 and operates within the bounds of a major waste management site that serves the Port Stephens Council area.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative-Landfill Gas) Methodology Determination 2015. This methodology credits the capture and combustion of methane generated by decomposing organic waste in landfill sites. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, and by capturing it through a system of wells and pipes and combusting it (flaring or electricity generation), the project converts the methane into carbon dioxide, which has a significantly lower global warming potential. This specific project is classified as a "transitioning project," meaning it shifted from an earlier Carbon Farming Initiative method to the current framework and generates credits from both "legacy" waste (deposited before July 2012) and "non-legacy" waste.

The Raymond Terrace region is characterized by a mix of industrial, residential, and surrounding forestry and grazing land uses. The area typically experiences a humid subtropical climate with high rainfall, averaging over 1,000mm annually. The soils in the Port Stephens and Hunter region often consist of podzolics and clays, which are significant for landfill engineering to manage leachate and gas migration.

An interesting aspect of this project is its complex operational history involving multiple major waste and energy stakeholders. While the landfill facility itself is owned by Port Stephens Council and currently managed by Veolia (following their acquisition of SUEZ's Australian waste assets), the carbon project proponent is LMS Energy Pty Ltd. LMS Energy, a specialist in bioenergy, took over the proponent role from SUEZ Recycling & Recovery Holdings Pty Limited in late 2021, likely securing the rights to manage the gas collection and abatement infrastructure independently of the landfill's day-to-day waste operations.