Energy Minister Chris Bowen has been told he could unlock a huge, carbon-neutral gas resource equivalent to 5 per cent of domestic demand within three years if he introduces incentives and targets for the conversion of more organic waste into biogas.
An industry push for a “green gas” target to mirror the renewable energy target has been taken directly to Mr Bowen in the past fortnight as a possible solution to extremely high gas prices in Australia’s eastern states.
Food scraps, agricultural waste, sewage and other forms of organic waste can be processed, often through anaerobic digestion where bacteria break down organic matter, to produce the same gas that big fossil fuel producers extract from underground: methane.
But unlike the methane extracted from underground geology, advocates of “biomethane” claim carbon neutrality because the greenhouse gases emitted during combustion were previously removed from the atmosphere by the plants, such as sugar cane, that are processed to make biomethane.
Industry lobby group Bioenergy Australia has seized on Australia’s energy crisis to tell Mr Bowen that projects producing 28 petajoules of gas a year, about 5 per cent of national demand, could be delivered from waste products if a such a target was enforced by the government.
Projects with the capacity to supply 20 per cent of domestic gas demand could be delivered by 2030 if federal incentives or targets were adopted, said the lobby group, which represents a mix of nascent biogas producers, potential customers and incumbent fossil fuel producers.
The Morrison government oversaw a tweak to the rules that made it easier for landfill gas – methane produced at rubbish dumps – to claim carbon credits, but biogas producer Delorean Corporation told the Tech Zero podcast that further policy reform was needed to encourage the diversion of organic waste from landfill.
“I think we need to see more policy in place that enables us to capture those organics for energy production,” Delorean managing director Joe Oliver said.
“We [Australia] don’t support as much the diversion of organics from landfill into similar facilities. So, we want to level the playing field there to enable more capture of carbon credits.”
Delorean has recently completed construction of the world’s first gas-fired power station to be fed with biomethane from oat waste in South Australia’s Bordertown, and is also developing a biogas plant in Adelaide’s north that will process urban food scraps.
Organic waste opportunity
Mr Oliver told Tech Zero that Australia was well behind Europe in terms of converting household food scraps for energy, and it was reasonable to expect every local government in Australia would be converting organic waste for energy by 2050 rather than continuing the present practice of sending it to landfill or making low-value products such as mulch.
“What we’re really pushing for is to have a rollout of anaerobic digestion facilities or bioenergy facilities nationally that captures those organic wastes,” he said.
“We’ve got to put the infrastructure in to underpin the green bin rollout.”
Gas pipeline and energy infrastructure company Jemena will achieve an Australian first this year when it starts pumping biomethane made at Sydney’s Malabar waste water treatment plant directly into the NSW gas network.
The methane produced at Malabar will be the first participant in a new scheme called Greenpower, which seeks to accredit, recognise and ultimately provide financial incentives for “renewable gas”.
Jemena spokesman Michael Pintabona said the company hoped to see further policy reform to encourage the sector.
“Jemena is calling for the introduction of a renewable gas target, which we believe would likely replicate the success of the renewable energy target in the electricity sector, and would help jump-start the gas sector to truly commercialise zero-emission gases such as hydrogen and biomethane, and make them available to Australian homes and businesses at scale,” he said.