McRobies Gully Landfill Gas Upgrade Project

McRobies Gully Landfill Gas Upgrade Project is a landfill gas abatement project located at the McRobies Gully Waste Management Centre in South Hobart, approximately 3km west of the Hobart city centre in Tasmania. It was registered in July 2022. The exact project area is undefined, as it seamlessly encompasses the active and legacy footprint of the existing municipal landfill.

Landfill gas projects involve the installation of infrastructure to capture and combust methane-rich biogas generated by decomposing organic waste. By capturing this gas, the project prevents highly potent greenhouse gases from entering the atmosphere. Under the electricity generation methodology, the captured methane is not only destroyed but is used as a base-load fuel source to generate renewable power.

The region surrounding South Hobart is situated in the forested foothills of Mount Wellington, characterized by a mix of native bushland, urban residential development, and the municipal waste management site itself. The area experiences a temperate maritime climate with moderate rainfall. The local geology and soil composition feature mudstone and sandstone bedrock overlaid with podzolic soils.

This project, operated by LMS Energy, upgrades an existing landfill gas collection system at the site to actively capture and combust biogas from both legacy and non-legacy waste. In June 2024, the project varied its method to transition to the 2021 Electricity Generation from Landfill Gas methodology. An interesting local environmental note is that the McRobies Gully facility, known locally as "The Tip", sits just above the Hobart Rivulet. The City of Hobart recently installed a $600,000 gross pollutant trap below the site to prevent escaped landfill litter from harming local aquatic life, specifically to protect native platypus populations from entanglement.