Australia’s first biomethane-to-gas project will see thousands of Sydney homes and businesses using renewable green gas for cooking, heating and hot water.
Jemena has signed an agreement with Sydney Water to generate biomethane at the Malabar Wastewater Treatment Plant, in South Sydney.
The zero carbon emission high-quality biomethane gas will be injected into Jemena’s New South Wales gas distribution network – the largest in Australia with 1.4 million customers.
The $14 million project is jointly funded by Jemena ($8.1 million) and the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA) who provided $5.9 million in grant funding.
Jemena Executive General Manager, Gas Distribution, Dr Jennifer Purdie, said circular economy opportunities have the potential to create jobs, support business growth, and enhance energy security, with no impact to the network or customer appliances.
“This agreement will see biomethane injected into the gas network for the first time in Australia with an initial capacity of 95 Terajoules (JT) of renewable green gas per year, which is enough to meet the gas demand of approximately 6,300 homes,” Dr Purdie said.
“This has the potential to be scaled up to 200 TJ per year, enough to meet the gas demand of around 13,300 homes.”
“We estimate there’s at least another 30,000 TJ of biomethane that has the potential to be unlocked around our NSW gas infrastructure. That’s enough to supply all our current residential customers with carbon-neutral, green gas,” she said.
“Our customers have told us they want to purchase verified and accredited zero-emission green gas as is currently the case for renewable electricity. We are challenging the notion that the only way to be 100 per cent renewable is through electrification, and this project will introduce the first renewable gas certificates to support our call for a national renewable gas certification scheme.”
Bioenergy is derived from plant and animal by-products, agriculture, farming, forestry and human wastes. When converted into biomethane, it is a reliable and responsive carbon-neutral energy.
Bioenergy and waste-to-energy projects are widespread in the US and Europe, with Bioenergy Australia estimating, in 2016, that the total contribution of the US biofuels industry was $459 billion, employing 4.65 million direct and indirect workers.
Globally, more than a million TJ of biogas were produced in 2014, about 1.5 per cent of the international renewable energy supply [1].
In Australia, it’s estimated the biofuels industry could provide 250,000 jobs, mostly in regional areas [2], and has the potential to avoid up to nine million tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions [1].
The Malabar biomethane project is expected to remove 5,000 tonnes of carbon emissions – the equivalent of around 4,500 cars off the road – and potentially 11,000 tonnes if scaled up to its full potential, making it a significant contributor to the NSW Government’s Stage 1, Net Zero Plan, to cut emissions by 35 per cent by 2030 compared to 2005 levels.
The facility is forecast to produce the first biomethane for injection into the gas network in 2022.
[1] Biogas opportunities for Australia. March 2019
[2] Biofuels and Transport: An Australian Opportunity, a special report from the CEFC and ARENA
