Gas flare at Green Island Landfill

The large bluish flame coming from the Green Island Landfill recently is part of the project designed to capture landfill gas as part of our commitment to the National Standard for Air Quality.

This temporary flare is being used to test the quality and quantity of landfill gas available from Green Island. It will operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week until approximately October 2009 when a new permanent flare will be installed.

Burning any flammable gas of course has associated risks but we undertaken a comprehensive risk assessment and, to the best of our ability, all risks have been managed.

It will be normal to see variation in the flare's shape and direction as it moves with the wind. It is located in a safe, secured compound that only authorised persons can access. The gas field is monitored daily by specialists for variations in gas quality and yield.

Why are we doing this?

Methane is a greenhouse gas that remains in the atmosphere for approximately 9-15 years. It is over 20 times more effective in trapping heat in the atmosphere that carbon dioxide over a 100-year period and is emitted from a variety of natural and human-influenced sources. Human-influenced sources include landfills, natural gas and petroleum systems, agricultural activities, coal mining, stationary and mobile combustion, wastewater treatment and certain industrial processes.

Methane is also a primary constituent of natural gas and an important energy source, meaning efforts to use or prevent methane emissions can provide significant energy, economic and environmental benefits.

We hope that in time, we will be able to do something with the gas other than flaring it. While there are many potential projects that may use the methane in a beneficial way, we have to undertake significant analysis on the gas field economics, including the quality and quantity of the gas and how long it is likely to be produced. We will undertake this work as stages of the landfill are completed and more bores connected. For now however, from an environmental point of view, destruction of the gas by flaring is most important.

Contact details

Contact Ian Featherston on 477 4000.

Last reviewed: 27 Mar 2009 12:51pm