Council fires up landfill gas capture efforts

Noosa Council is adding lateral gas capture lines to the Eumundi-Noosa Road landfill to boost the amount of methane being collected and flared.

Flaring turns methane into less potent CO2, therefore helping to reduce its global warming impact.

The initiative is part of Council’s ongoing quest to achieve zero net emissions by 2026, Mayor Tony Wellington said.

“The breakdown of organic matter in the Eumundi-Noosa Road landfill accounts for just over half of Council’s carbon emissions,” he said.

“While we already have gas capture wells, the new lateral lines are essentially horizontal pipes that extend our capability to capture more gas. It means that we’re now able to also collect methane from areas that have only recently been filled with waste.

“As methane is 28 times more potent than CO2, the more that we are able to flare before it escapes into the atmosphere, the better.”

Methane is produced as organic matter such as food and greenwaste degrade in landfill. 

The Mayor said the new gas capture lines would help Council build on its earlier efforts to reduce emissions from the site.

“We’re looking forward to building on the 18% reduction we achieved during 2017/18.”

The Mayor said Council was also investigating opportunities to use the captured methane to create electricity, which some other Australian local governments were doing successfully.

“While we’re not in a position to do that yet, we’re investigating the possibility.”

20 May 2019