Australian red meat processing plants generate significant volumes of high strength wastewater as part of their normal operations. In the treatment of wastewater onsite, anaerobic lagoons often form one of the first steps, which are a cost-effective process but can suffer from odour emissions where natural crusts do not form. 

With the awareness of climate change and the wish for companies to reduce the emissions of greenhouse gases, along with an improvement in technology, CAL's are once again being investigated to not only treat wastewater and reduce odours but also capture and use methane gas to lower emission footprints.