25 September 2024
Congratulations to JBS Australia and its project partners for winning the award for Outstanding Biogas Project in our inaugural Australian Renewable Heat Awards.
The Awards will recognise the innovative work out there which is leading the transition to renewable heat and setting the benchmarks for projects that follow.
Learn more about JBS Australia's winning project below.
JBS Biogas Generation and Boiler Fuel Substitution Program
Industry sector: meat processing
Location: Scone, NSW and Beef City, QLD
Completed: November 2023
Project partners:
Local contractors
Project summary:
At each of the plants, JBS had two open wastewater anaerobic lagoons releasing methane, which contributed significantly to greenhouse gas emissions. Facing high natural gas prices and supply uncertainties, JBS switched to covered anaerobic lagoons (CALs), boosted biogas production, and reduced the sulphur before using biogas in their boilers. This approach reduced both wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) fugitive methane emissions and displaced natural gas usage, achieving a double benefit for cutting greenhouse gases and introducing renewable energy.
Biogas is supplied through a new gas train, and modifications to one boiler by installation of a dual burner to this boiler, and new control systems will enable the use of both biogas and natural gas and the addition of economisers to the boilers to improve efficiency
The total expected reduction in GHG emissions from the avoidance of fugitive WWTP emissions and fuel substitution will be approximately 60,000 tonnes CO2-e per annum.
The projects pave the way for JBS to repeat this success at another six sites and is a key pathway contributor to their GHG reduction goal aspirations.
The heating challenge the project addressed:
The two facilities are major meat processing plants aiming to establish sustainable operations through resource recovery and reduced odours. They focus on optimizing carbon/nitrogen ratios to enhance anaerobic reactions. Adjustments included the removal of a considerable amount of paunch (carbon) from the waste stream to boost biogas production.
Both the Scone & Beef City steam boilers modified as dual fuel are 7 MW in capacity. These operate as lead boilers at the respective sites, providing steam production used in the render plant facility and hot water for production and amenities.
Please detail the technologies implemented/upgraded and any technologies which were replaced:
Biogas captured from anerobic wastewater lagoons has faced challenges in the past including ensuring gas pressure, boiler compatibility, and reductions in hydrogen sulphide (H2S). These sites use systems from AWITE to treat and reduce the generation of hydrogen sulphur under the covers with support from Energy 360 to ensure successful biogas generation and boiler compatibility
Please detail the results which have been delivered by this project:
Key metrics from the two projects were
Biogas providing 30% of the site gas needs and growing through further tuning
Project payback around 7-10 years, with ACCUs dropping this to 5 years
AWITE system to removes / reduces hydrogen sulphide by a factor of ten (10)
GHG emission reductions from fugitive emissions (from the wastewater) and avoided emissions from natural gas
Scone: Reduced emissions by over 27,700 tonnes of CO2-e
Beef City: Reduces emissions by over 34,750 tonnes of CO2-e
Project registered under the ERF Wastewater Treatment method for ACCUs and for ESCs under the NSW ESS PIAM&V method.
QLD project registered under ERF Industrial & Commercial Emissions Reduction method.
Increased wastewater processing capacity at the plant.
Key learnings from these two projects were regulatory environmental and development application (DA) approvals take a long time. JBS is now working to get in place for other sites so that when the CAPEX is made available it will allow them to streamline and expedite future planned projects in a timely manner.
Please detail any special innovations included in the project which make it cutting edge:
Biogas optimisation was achieved through a combination of generation optimisation through balancing the content of the wastewater (retention time and composition), through moisture reduction the biogas and through hydrogen sulphide removal from the biogas stream. Reduction in paunch (carbon) in the waste stream was performed as part of boosting biogas production.The achievements and insights from these two sites, combined with the extended ERF Wastewater project lifetimes and funding, paves the way for installing CALs and producing biogas at JBS's six other locations.
Please list any federal or state funding which supported this project:
The QLD project was registered with assitance from Northmore Gordon under the ERF (Carbon Farming Initiative) to generate ACCUs from two different emission reductions. Firstly, from avoided emissions under the Wastewater Treatment Method (WWTM). A second ERF project is registered under the ERF Industrial & Commercial Emissions Reduction (ICER) method for the avoided emissions through burning biogas in the boilers in place of natural gas.
In Scone NSW the project has been registered under the ERF WWTM and under the NSW ESS for the biogas displacing natural gas.
Funding from these environmental certificate projects is expected to start flowing in 2025.
The ERF WWTM has recently been extended to allow a further 5 years of crediting and this funding will help with end of life CAL cover replacement, pond desludge and cleaning to extend the life of the biogas and emissions reduction project.