Bartter Enterprises Beresfield Processing Plant Biogas Cogeneration System (Revoked)

Bartter Enterprises Beresfield Processing Plant Biogas Cogeneration System (Revoked) was an industrial wastewater emissions reduction project located in Beresfield, New South Wales, approximately 25 kilometers northwest of Newcastle. Registered in September 2015, the project was situated within a major industrial processing precinct of the Lower Hunter Valley. The surrounding region is characterized by a mix of heavy industrial land use and the broader agricultural floodplain of the Hunter River, which is historically significant for poultry farming and grazing.

The project operated under the Carbon Farming Initiative (Domestic, Commercial and Industrial Wastewater) methodology. This method credits the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions achieved by capturing methane generated during the anaerobic treatment of wastewater. Specifically, this project replaced deep open anaerobic lagoons, which typically vent potent methane directly into the atmosphere, with engineered anaerobic digesters. The captured biogas was then combusted using an internal combustion engine to generate energy, thereby converting the methane into less harmful carbon dioxide while producing useful power.

Environmentally, the Beresfield area experiences a warm, humid temperate climate with high annual rainfall, typically exceeding 1,000mm. The local soil profile is dominated by the "Beresfield" soil landscape, consisting of alluvial clays and loams derived from the nearby Hunter River floodplain. These heavy soils are naturally conducive to the retention of water, which historically necessitated the use of large lagoon systems for managing industrial effluent before the shift toward modern digester technology.

A notable aspect of this project was its proponent, Bartter Enterprises, the company behind the iconic Steggles poultry brand (later acquired by Baiada Poultry). Despite being registered for over two years, the Clean Energy Regulator records indicate that zero Australian Carbon Credit Units (ACCUs) were issued to the project before it was revoked in January 2018. The revocation occurred under Section 33 of the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative) Act 2011, which refers to a voluntary "unilateral revocation" requested by the proponent. This suggests that while the physical infrastructure (digesters) may have been installed for operational or energy-saving reasons, the proponent opted to exit the carbon credit scheme, perhaps due to the administrative complexity or a strategic shift in how they valued the abatement.