On Wednesday, Dominion Energy and Smithfield Foods, the world’s largest pork producer, have announced the completion of the first renewable natural gas (RNG) production project under their Align Renewable Natural Gas joint venture. The project is now actively producing RNG from 26 family farms in Milford, Utah that raise hogs under contract with Smithfield.
Upon reaching full capacity, the project will produce enough RNG from hog manure to heat more than 3,000 homes and businesses, and cut yearly emissions from participating farms by more than 100,000 metric tons, equivalent to planting 1.8 million new trees every year, or taking 23,000 cars off the road.
The Dominion-Smithfield venture, which was originally announced in late 2018, is the first large-scale effort to capture methane from hog farming operations and convert it into clean energy for homes, businesses, and transportation.
It’s gold
The RNG production process itself is fairly straightforward. Methane gas is a natural, malodorous byproduct of hog manure as it breaks down organically. Rather than being released into the atmosphere, methane is captured onsite at the farm and put into an anaerobic digester. Methane is collected from multiple farms and sent to a refining facility, where it is refined into 99 percent methane, exactly the same composition as traditional natural gas, and introduced into the existing gas distribution system.
The project also benefits family farmers by simplifying the process of manure management, not only cutting manure disposal costs, but giving them the ability to monetize manure.
Per Dominion and Smithfield, “significantly more” greenhouse gas emissions are captured from the farms than are released when consumers use the resulting natural gas. This disparity makes RNG a “carbon-beneficial” energy source.
“This is an exciting breakthrough for the future of clean energy and sustainable farming,” said Ryan Childress, Dominion Energy’s director of gas business development, in a statement on Wednesday. “With this single technology, we can produce clean energy for consumers, reduce farm emissions and benefit family farmers. It’s a powerful example of the environmental progress we can make through innovation. We’re thrilled Utah is leading the way, and we’re excited to keep the momentum going in other states across the country.”
Dominion and Smithfield’s Align Renewable Natural Gas venture is the largest of its kind in the United States. Jointly, the companies are investing $500 million over the next 10 years to develop RNG projects nationwide. Once completed, these projects will reduce annual greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. hog farms by 2.5 million metric tons (equivalent to planting 40 million new trees or taking 500,000 cars off the road). Resulting renewable gas produced will be used to heat more than 70,000 homes and businesses.
Besides the Utah project, Dominion and Smithfield have additional projects under development in North Carolina and Virginia, and more planned for Arizona and California.
LFTGE
Other gas-to-energy projects have sourced renewable biogas not just from farms, but from landfills, in so-called landfill-gas-to-energy (LFTGE) projects. According to EPA estimates, 7.6 megawatts of energy produced from landfill gas has a total equivalent emissions reduction of more than 44,000 tons of carbon dioxide each year.
“Utilizing low carbon biomethane sources such as landfill gas reduces greenhouse gas emissions and helps improve local air,” said Richard DiGia, president and CEO of Aria Energy, a privately held, Michigan-based provider of caseload renewable energy to U.S. utilities and other customers.
Aria’s portfolio spans 42 renewable energy projects across 17 states, collectively representing 223 MW of electricity and 24,760 MMBtu/day of RNG, and supplying over 500 million gallons of RNG each year to fueling stations nationwide.
On Tuesday, the U.S.’s second-largest recycling and waste disposal services provider Republic Services announced, together with Aria, that it will expand its current LFGTE project in the state of Indiana to increase its use of biogas by 25 percent.
Electricity generated from the LFGTE project, which Aria Energy owns and operates, is sold to Wabash Valley Power Alliance under a long-term power purchase agreement.
“This project expansion furthers our commitment to producing clean, renewable electricity and natural gas to homes and businesses across the U.S,” DiGia added.
The Aria Energy project in Indiana is part of Republic’s long-term sustainability goal, called Blue Planet, to divert 50 percent more landfill gas to beneficial reuse by 2030. Republic is currently partnering on 69 landfill gas projects nationwide.
