“Energy from biogas is likely to expand in Australia. There’s huge potential for growth in feedstock from the livestock and food-processing sectors in particular, coupled with rising electricity prices and landfill gate fees.  Australia is transitioning toward clean energy technology, giving biogas a massive opportunity to help meet renewable energy targets and decarbonisation efforts, as well as providing a holistic solution to a range of waste management issues.”

Ass. Professor Bernadette McCabe, University
of Southern Queensland, National Team Leader: International Energy Agency Bioenergy Task 37  
(Energy from Biogas)

Australia has a vast potential for anaerobic digestion (AD) which until recently had been largely untapped. Waste management, climate change initiatives, and renewable energy targets are driving the adoption of biogas technology in Australia, which is currently dominated by landfills and wastewater plants. With intensive livestock and food-processing industries looking to valorise their waste and landfill gate fees and electricity costs rising, the Australian biogas industry is expected to increase its rate of growth even more. (World Biogas Association, 2017)

Waste-based biogas: Waste-based production (livestock manure, biosolids, food, and water) in Australia has the potential to become a $3.9 billion per year industry. With a livestock population of 29 million cattle, over 2 million pigs, and 101 million poultry in addition to about 24 million people generating biosolids and 290 kg of food waste per year, the potential for biogas is approximately 7.5 million m3. This can contribute towards achieving renewable energy targets through electricity generation and, if upgraded, can help fuel the 380,000 natural gas vehicles already driving on Australian roads or connect to the 6.5 million homes on the gas distribution network (Energy Network Australia, 2017).

Livestock industry: Australia has sizeable industries in livestock, and red meat processing and rendering, all of which face rising energy and fertiliser costs and odour and urban encroachment issues (McCabe B, 2015). Anaerobic digestion of manure and processing wastes presents an opportunity for better waste management, reduced emissions and improved regulatory compliance. CEFC (2015a) have projected agricultural biogas production at 791 GWh by 2020.

Urban waste industry: The Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC, 2015a) has identified significant opportunity for implementation of biogas technologies in the municipal solid waste industry, attributing this opportunity to rising landfill gate fees and the decreasing cost of biogas technology.

Bagasse: Australia is the third largest exporter of sugar in the world, with the industry worth $2 billion per year (ARENA, 2016). A significant proportion of Australia’s current renewable energy comes from burning bagasse, the residue left over after extraction of sugar (Department of Industry, Innovation and Science, 2016). The Australian Renewable Energy Agency has funded a project to explore more environmentally and economically viable ways of utilising this resource via anaerobic digestion and production of biogas (ARENA, 2016).

(World Biogas Association, 2017)

The Process