City of Greater Geraldton puts out tender for gas flaring at Meru with hopes to cut emissions by half

The City of Greater Geraldton has put out a tender for gas flaring at Meru Waste Management Facility to help reduce carbon emissions. The facility is the city’s biggest source of carbon emissions and gas flaring will help cut methane output by about 50 per cent, helping the city reach the net zero target by 2030. According to the city, two submissions were made to fulfill the tender, which closed on March 11. They were from South Australian business LMS Energy Pty Ltd and Victorian business Run Energy Pty Ltd. It is not yet known if either will be successful. Gas flaring is a process in which methane is stored in sunken bores then burned off — turning it into carbon dioxide and water, which is less harmful to the environment. The process produces powerful heat which can be used as a source of energy. City infrastructure services director Chris Lee said the project had been on the radar since 2021 and the city had been researching how it could be achieved at Meru. The official investigation into gas flaring is the result of recommendations in the city’s corporate climate change mitigation plan, which was endorsed by the council in November 2021. “We’ve been chipping away at it and doing the investigations and desktop studies, feasibility studies with various consultants since then, which then resulted in us going to market for expressions of interest,” Mr Lee said. ”(We are) looking for prospective companies or people that can actually undertake this kind of work.” Mr Lee said they had investigated other sites using gas flaring as precedent studies, including locations in WA’s South West. “If there’s sufficient gas, you could actually turn it from a gas flaring system into a energy producing system and use that gas to power a turbine that could then create electricity,” Mr Lee said. “The first stage is testing, second stage is to get some gas flaring going, but then ideally we might even get to a point where we could actually be producing electricity as well, which would be even better. That’s a long-term aspiration.” The forecast is the project would save 17,795 tonnes of carbon dioxide each year if the city implemented it by 2025. The city allocated $100,000 to the project in its 2023-24 capital works budget, alongside transitioning to a green energy provider.