Pavilion Farms Anakie Anaerobic Digestion Project

Pavilion Farms Anakie Anaerobic Digestion Project is an animal effluent management project located in Anakie, approximately 40km northwest of Geelong in Victoria. It was registered in October 2022 and covers an unknown project area.

Animal effluent management projects involve treating animal agricultural waste, such as chicken litter or pig and dairy effluent, using emissions destruction facilities like anaerobic digesters. Under this methodology, the project must collect the effluent to securely capture and combust the methane that would have otherwise naturally vented into the atmosphere.

The Anakie area is situated on the gently undulating volcanic plains of western Victoria, which is widely used for sheep and beef cattle grazing, as well as cereal cropping. The region experiences a moderate climate with an annual rainfall of approximately 580mm to 680mm. Local soils are typically derived from Quaternary basalt and consist of alkaline mottled brown texture-contrast soils and shallow clays.

This project was set up to collect and combust methane generated from chicken effluent at an anaerobic digestion facility on-site. Operating alongside Pavilion Farms, which grows approximately 15 million broiler chickens annually, the biogas facility is designed to process over 25,000 tonnes of chicken litter and organic waste per year. In addition to mitigating greenhouse gas emissions, the plant converts the captured methane into renewable electricity and produces a pathogen-free, high-nutrient organic fertiliser.