Biogas: Pro-Economy and Pro-Climate

The American Biogas Council (ABC) and the Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) held a briefing about the many benefits of renewable biogas. Biogas is produced from the decomposition of organic wastes (such as agriculture residues, manure, food wastes, and sewage) in the absence of oxygen. It can be refined into renewable natural gas, and used to power vehicles, heat homes, cook, or generate electricity—just like natural gas. Biogas is a powerful driver for economic growth, particularly in rural areas in need of economic opportunities. Biogas also lowers our greenhouse gas emissions, contributes to clean air and water, and improves soil health. It turns waste, which would be a problem if not used, into valuable resources.

HIGHLIGHTS

Bernie Sheff, Chairman, American Biogas Council; Vice President of Engineering, Montrose Environmental Group

• The American Biogas Council is the only organization in the United States that represents the entire biogas industry. It represents more than 200 organizations.
• There are currently more than 2,200 operational biogas systems in the United States, with a potential for more than 14,000. These include:
  • 253 farm-site facilities, with a potential for 8,300 additional facilities. One facility can prevent 5,000 cubic feet a day of methane being emitted into the atmosphere.
  • 1,269 water reclamation facilities, with a potential for 4,000 additional facilities.
  • 66 food scraps facilities, with a potential for 1,000 additional facilities.
  • 645 landfill facilities, with a potential for 440 additional facilities.
• Biogas checks all the right boxes and protects the climate. It's a closed-loop system, which provides energy, recycling and fertilizer services.
  • Manure, food waste, and grease cooking waste can all go to the biogas plant.
  • Biogas can generate heat and electricity to operate buildings and run cars and the trucks that carry the waste.
  • Biogas systems not only recover the methane generated from waste, but also the phosphorus, nitrogen, potassium, and sulfur in the effluent. These can be used to make fertilizers that can go right back on the land to grow the crops that the cows eat, closing the circle. When food waste goes into a landfill, the phosphorus stays there forever. Through anaerobic digestion (the process that produces biogas) and its recovery of nutrients, we don’t have to bring more phosphorus into our country to grow crops.
  • The carbon (emission) intensity of methane from anaerobic digestion (biogas) can score really low, -275 gCO2e/MJ (grams of carbon dioxide equivalent per megajoule). In effect, that means that biogas facilities are carbon negative: they remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere and displace the use of fossil fuels, helping reduce our carbon footprint.
• Biogas facilities have substantial economic benefits as well:
  • Building 13,500 biogas systems would represent $40 billion in capital development.
  • It would also create 335,000 short-term construction jobs and 23,000 permanent jobs.

Clark Pauley, Vice President, Organics & Bioenergy Division, CR&R Environmental Services

• CR&R is a privately held waste and recycling company based in Southern California, servicing more than 3.5 million customers across 50 cities and employing about 1,500 people.
• CR&R developed, owns, and operates the largest high-solids anaerobic digestion facility in the world. The ROAR (Regional Organics Anaerobic Recovery) Facility in Perris, CA, converts collected green waste and food scraps into renewable natural gas (RNG) and compost.
• The key policy driver for organics recycling and biofuel production in California is Senate Bill (SB) 1383. It requires a 50 percent reduction in organic waste disposal by 2020 (compared to 2014), and a 75 percent reduction by 2025. In 2014, 23 million tons of digestible and compostable organics were disposed of in California landfills. About 100 new composting facilities and/or anaerobic digesters will need to be built to meet SB1383's goals.
• Other regulatory drivers and financial incentives for biogas facilities in California include:
  • California's Global Warming Solutions Act of 2006 (AB 32 / SB 32), a cap and trade program that is driving measurable greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions.
  • The Low Carbon Fuel Standard, which confers credits to renewable fuels based on how effective they are at reducing GHGs compared to fossil fuels.
• ROAR digests and repurposes 323,000 tons of waste per year. Green material and food scraps are churned for 15 days in the digester, where micro-organisms eat the material and turn it into biogas—a 50/50 mixture of CO2 and methane, approximately. High temperatures kill any pathogens. Solids drop out and are turned into compost. The biogas is upgraded to ~99 percent methane purity to meet Southern California specifications to enter the gas pipeline network.
• The ROAR facility is currently producing ~80,000 gasoline gallon equivalents (GGEs) of renewable natural gas (RNG) per month (RNG is purified biogas). A portion of that gas will be used to power CR&R's fleet of trucks. The facility also produces compost—high-quality, bag-quality soil product—in only 30 days (compared to an average compost production time of 90 days).
• Generating biogas and compost through anaerobic digestion has many benefits, including:
  • Organic yard and food waste is converted into usable products, keeping organic waste out of landfills where it would naturally degrade and release methane into the atmosphere. Methane is 84 times more destructive as a greenhouse gas than CO2.
  • RNG fuel has a much lower carbon intensity than fossil fuels, with 90 percent lower emissions than a regular diesel engine. Replacing diesel engines with high-efficiency, ultra-low NOx Cummins natural gas engines, powered by ROAR’s low-carbon renewable natural gas, results in a lower carbon footprint than an electric or hydrogen vehicle.

Charles Love, Renewable Energy Acquisition, Trillium (Love’s Travel Stops)

• Love’s Travel Stops is one of the largest privately-held companies in the United States, with 450+ locations in 41 states. Its subsidiary, Trillium, is focused on developing and building the infrastructure required to support a low-carbon transportation future with alternative energy solutions, including hydrogen fuel cells, battery, electric, solar, and RNG technologies.
• In the past few years, Trillium has been focusing on Renewable Natural Gas. RNG is currently the most cost-effective and environmentally-friendly solution for trucks—it is the perfect alternative fuel because it can turn waste into hydrogen, electricity, liquid natural gas (LNG) or compressed natural gas (CNG), making it very flexible. It can also be produced in all 50 states.
• RNG as a transportation fuel has been transformative. Over the past five years, using RNG has been equivalent to removing 1.5 million cars off the road, in terms of GHG emission reductions.
• New natural gas engine technology from the Cummins Westport partnership has resulted in an engine so clean that 1,000 trucks using this technology in 2019 emit the same amount of NOx as one truck from 1987.
• Renewable Natural Gas produced from the manure of dairy farms has a carbon intensity score of -254.94 gCO2e/MJ, making it a carbon sink. Methane is a very potent GHG, so it is much better to burn it as a fuel than release it in the atmosphere.

Olga Brizhan, Executive Director, GESS International, Inc.

• GESS (Green Energy Sustainable Solutions) International was the first biogas systems project development company in the United States, and is the fastest-growing. It has 20 biogas plants ready for construction this year, with 20 more under development. GESS’s projects will facilitate at least 20 percent growth of farm-site biogas plants (of which there are currently only 250).
• There are already more than 10,000 operating digesters in Europe, so the potential in America is great.
• Each biogas plant can process about 270,000 tons of organic agriculture waste, including swine and dairy manure and green crop residues.
• Each plant will generate 550,000 million BTUs of RNG per year—equivalent to 5.5 megawatts of electricity (enough to power about 25 Walmarts).
• Farmers will reap environmental benefits, including dramatic odor reduction, reduced nutrient runoff, and increased crop yield. Each plant will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by about 2 million cubic feet (in dairy farms).
• GESS’s plants create new revenue streams for farmers. GESS leases the land on which the plants are built, purchases brown biomass (swine and dairy manure), and purchases green biomass. Farmers can get an additional ~$4-5 million in annual income from each facility.
• GESS is converting IndyCar racing teams’ large number of transportation trucks into RNG trucks.

Patrick Serfass, Executive Director, American Biogas Council

• There are biogas systems in every U.S. state and immense opportunities nationwide. Companies invest in biogas systems because it makes both economic sense (generating new revenue and saving money) and environmental sense.
• The biogas industry is calling for an equal playing field with other renewable energy technologies. For example, wind and solar energy saw their favorable tax code treatment renewed by Congress in 2015. The biogas industry could grow the same way if granted those same tax credits.
• The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is helping drive the industry.
• Biogas has several advantages compared to other renewables. It is a source of baseload power, running 24/7. Biogas facilities generate on average 95 percent of their maximum possible output, compared to 17 percent for solar and 22 percent for wind.
• The biogas industry has the potential to manage huge amounts of waste in the United States:
  • 66.5 million tons of food waste per year.
  • Sludge from 33 billion gallons of wastewater every day. Biogas systems are one of the best ways to return clean water into watersheds
  • Manure and nutrients from 8 billion cows, chickens, turkeys, and pigs. Biogas systems can manage odor, generate energy, and recycle nutrients so that we don’t have to use fossil fuels to make new nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers.
• There are only two options for recycling organic materials: biogas and composting. Biogas systems work well with composting to maximize efficiency.
• In summary, the benefits of biogas energy are:
  • Waste management
  • Nutrient recycling
  • Reduced or negative GHG emissions
  • Revenue “insurance” for farmers
  • Odor reduction
  • Soil health
• There is much focus on greening the electric grid, but greening the gas grid is also crucial because the gas grid delivers 1.25 times more energy in the United States than the electric grid, an often overlooked fact.

Briefing attendees learned about the potential biogas resources in their states, the economic and job opportunities they offer, and important policy drivers for this promising industry.

More than 140,000 Americans work in bioenergy, which includes biogas. There are more than 2,200 sites producing biogas in all 50 states, and the potential is much greater: 13,500 additional dairy/swine farms, wastewater treatment plants, and landfill gas projects could be converted into biogas production facilities. Doing so would generate enough energy to power 7.5 million homes, reduce carbon emissions (as if 15.4 million cars were taken off the road), and create about 335,000 temporary construction jobs and 23,000 full-time operational positions. Our foreign competitors have taken the lead. In China, where biogas alone supports 209,000 workers, electricity generated from waste-to-energy has risen 300 percent in a decade, up to 4,100 MW. Europe has more than 10,000 operating digesters, which have helped make many of its communities fossil fuel free.

Biogas also has considerable environmental benefits. The United States produces more than 70 million tons of organic wastes per year, which threaten our air and water quality as well as public health. Biogas facilities can turn these wastes into resources, creating local jobs, improving air and water quality, and helping meet the policy goals espoused in both the Farm Bill and Renewable Fuel Standard.