Brinkley Biogas Flaring Project

The Brinkley Biogas Flaring Project is an animal effluent management project located in the locality of Brinkley, approximately 10km southwest of the major regional town of Murray Bridge in South Australia. Registered on March 16, 2016, the project is operated by Sunpork Consolidated Pty Ltd, one of Australia's largest pork producers. Unlike land-sector projects that cover vast hectares, this project is facility-based, integrated into an intensive piggery operation within the Murraylands region, an area traditionally known for mixed farming, grazing, and cropping.

The project operates under the Carbon Credits (Carbon Farming Initiative, Animal Effluent Management) Methodology Determination 2019. This methodology incentivizes the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by changing how piggery manure is treated. Standard piggeries often use open anaerobic ponds which release significant amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. This project utilizes covered lagoons to capture this methane as it is generated. The captured gas is then combusted (flared) or used to generate electricity, converting the methane into carbon dioxide and water, which has a significantly lower global warming potential.

Environmentally, the Brinkley region is characterized by a semi-arid to Mediterranean climate with winter-dominant rainfall. The local landscape, described as the "Brinkley Land System," typically features moderate parallel sand dunes and stony rises. Soils in this area are predominantly calcareous sandy loams and sandy clays, which are often shallow and sit over calcrete layers. These conditions are typical for the Murraylands, supporting the surrounding agricultural land use.

The project originally operated under an earlier 2013 determination before transitioning to the 2019 method in mid-2022. Sunpork Group has highlighted its biogas initiatives as a key part of its sustainability strategy, noting that its biogas plants generate significant amounts of electricity (up to 5.7 GWh per year across their portfolio), reducing reliance on the grid and lowering Scope 2 emissions. The project successfully completed a carbon abatement contract (CAC967819) in June 2024.