Finalists Announced: The Best Biogas Projects of 2019
2019 Project of the Year Finalists Named
ABC Biogas Industry Awards and Dinner | October 29
We are excited to announce this year’s finalists for the 2019 ABC Biogas Industry Awards. This year, we received many nominations for great anaerobic digestion and landfill projects across the country and these are the finalists from which top winners will be announced on Tuesday, October 29. Each project offers a unique example of how innovative biogas systems and technologies can provide local solutions to our waste and need for renewable energy while protecting our air, water and soil.
The following finalist projects will compete for Project of the Year, Innovation of the Year, or the brand new Up-And-Coming Project of the Year for projects that are newly operational or are proposed to be operational in the next few months.
Calumet Renewable Energy | Newton, WI
ABC Members: DTE Biomass Energy, Roeslein Alternative Energy
According to Calumet Renewable Energy, this is the first dairy-based biogas to renewable natural gas (RNG) project in the state of Wisconsin as well as the first project in the United States to transport this dairy based RNG using highway transportation. This project collects and purifies raw biogas from 3 local digesters just outside Manitowoc, WI and injects the RNG into a natural gas pipeline. Additionally, raw biogas from two remote digesters/farms is purified at the site, compressed and trucked to their facility outside Manitowoc, where it is decompressed and injected into the same natural gas pipeline. This project is sized to accommodate additional dairies across Wisconsin. They are currently constructing 3 more remote RNG processing facilities, scheduled to be operational in early 2020.
Dane County RNG Facility | Madison, WI
ABC Members: Dane County Department of Public Works, Highway and Transportation
Dane County, Department of Waste & Renewables owns and operates a large regional landfill in Madison, WI (Dane County Landfill Site No. 2). Dane County Landfill Site No. 2 started operation of a RNG Facility in April 2019 to convert landfill gas to pipeline grade gas for use as transportation fuel. This state-of-the-art facility involves various technologies to condition the landfill gas to the stringent pipeline standards. Additionally, the facility added an off-loading station for area digesters to bring in trucked RNG for off-loading into the interstate pipeline, essentially opening the market for other sources of biogas and aiding in the growth of the biogas industry in Wisconsin. Dane County continues to show their commitment to the environmental protection of Wisconsin through innovative projects and inspires other communities throughout the US as to what can be done through hard work and creativity.
Honouliuli WWTP Biogas Upgrading w/ Hawaii Gas & DMT Clear Gas Solutions | Ewa Beach, HI
ABC Members: DMT Clear Gas Solutions
Hawaii Gas supplies gas energy to nearly every major market segment. In December 2018, Hawaii Gas became the first in the state to capture and process biogas, using DMT’s biogas upgrading equipment. In partnership with the City and County of Honolulu, the first-of-its-kind renewable natural gas (RNG) facility is equivalent to eliminating the need for nearly 15,000 barrels of oil and reducing greenhouse gases by the amount produced by 400 cars annually. The Honouliuli Wastewater RNG Facility produces about 800,000 therms of energy per year, enough gas for 5,555 homes. By selling the biogas to Hawaii Gas, the City and County of Honolulu will generate approximately $1.6 million of revenue per year. Through DMT’s two-stage membrane separation technology, biogas is collected, processed and injected into Hawaii Gas’ O’ahu utility pipeline to provide energy security and thermal energy for homes and businesses.
Jordan Dairy Farm Anaerobic Digester | Rutland, MA
ABC Members: Vanguard Renewables
Jordan Dairy Farms, located in Rutland, Mass., was the first dairy in Massachusetts to use anaerobic digester technology to blend farm manure, food scraps, and food processing by-products to produce biogas that is converted into power. The digester system, owned and operated by Vanguard Renewables, has been in operation since 2011 and uses approximately 25 percent manure from 350 cows and 75 percent organic food waste. Annually more than 20,000 tons of food waste from food processors and 9,000 tons of manure is combined in a 500,000-gallon digestion tank. Manure and food waste are mixed and microorganisms convert sugars, fats, and other compounds into biogas annually producing more than 7,008 MWh of renewable energy and generating approximately $200 per cow per year in revenue and cost savings for the dairy from power, heat, bedding, and odor-free liquid fertilizer that increases crop yields. The digester offsets 19,779 of CO2 emissions daily.
Komogas San Luis Obispo | San Luis Obispo, CA
ABC Member: Hitachi Zosen Inova
Hitachi Zosen INOVA U.S.A., LLC is constructing and will operate a state of the art dry anaerobic digestion facility at the Waste Connections’ collection yard in San Luis Obispo, California. The Project will meet California’s waste diversion law which targets a 75% waste reduction from landfills by 2020. The project will utilize waste that would have otherwise been deposited into the landfill as feedstock to create biogas through the anaerobic digestion process. Yard and food waste will be the main components of the feedstock. Biogas will then be utilized to create electricity through a co-generation unit. For this project, Waste Connections’ collection trucks will back in through roll-up doors and drop organic waste in the receiving area. A byproduct of this process is solid digestate and liquid fertilizer, which will be sold as compost and fertilizer.
MD Food Center Authority Anaerobic Digester | Jessup, MD
ABC Member: Bioenergy DevCo
Bioenergy DevCo’s first American plant, in Jessup, MD, is due to open Spring 2020. The 6-acre site will be home to their flagship facility and will house two digesters. The MD Food Center and dairy farms will supply 100,000 tons/year of vegetable, dairy food, and seafood waste, along with fats and greases. The location of the site was chosen strategically to allow easy trucking transport for feedstock supply expansion as well as readily supplying trucks with RNG. The Jessup plant will produce high quality methane and digestate due to Bioenergy DevCo’s patented technology. The company’s Metan Lab in Italy will collect empirical values to capture & monitor biogas efficiency of feedstocks. This will provide optimal AD microbiology. Bioenergy DevCo recently received their first major institutional investment from Newlight Partners LP greatly expanding their plans.
Organics to Energy Phase II, Combined Heat and Power and Digester Upgrades | North Andover, MA
ABC Members: Waste Management
After the Massachusetts DEP imposed a ban on landfill disposal of source-separated organics (SS0), the Greater Lawrence Sanitary District (GLSD) completed an Organics to Energy Feasibility Study in June of 2013, which found that incorporating SSO co-digestion and biogas fired co-generation system into the District’s treatment process would provide a regional solution for organic waste disposal and produce renewable energy (both heat and power) for use at the treatment facility allowing GLSD to be a net zero electric energy user, thereby avoiding over $2.8 M in power cost. A pilot program found that combining SSO with municipal sludge would product 4 times the amount of methane gas than without SSO. The construction project included the installation of a fourth 1.4 million gallon Anaerobic Digester tank, two 120,000 gallon SSO storage tanks, a new CHP building with two 1.6 MW CAT CHP engine generators and electrical switch-gear to allow export of excess power to the electrical grid.
Renovar Arlington LTD – Landfill and Waste-Water Digester (WWTP) Gas Upgrading | Landenberg, PA
ABC Member: Air Liquide Advanced Business & Technologies
This RNG project takes raw feed gas from 2 landfills & WWPT. Equipment includes feed comp, & an Air Liquide Biogaz system for H2O, Silox, VOC & CO2 removal. This system is followed by the first Air Liquide membrane unit for the removal ~10% N2 to <3%. O2 is reduced to 10 ppm in a PSB catalytic deoxo unit. The addition of the Air Liquide NRU membranes & deoxo unit improve the system’s robustness & ability to process through significant gas collection system breaches & permits a more aggressive well-field tuning methodology. This robustness & processing flexibility has greatly improved the plant’s availability & increased collection efficiency resulting in higher sales gas volumes. The system was built for an initial feed design rate of 3100 SCFM expandable to 5100 SCFM. This expansion is by simply by adding membrane modules in the CO2 and N2 membrane sections. The methane recovery Air Liquide Biogaz CO2 @ 98.2% & 95% for Air Liquide NRU membrane system.
Rockwood Ag-Grid and Rockwood Ag-Grid Organics | Kennett Square, PA
ABC Member: Ag-Grid, Martin Construction Resource
Rockwood Ag-Grid and Rockwood Ag-Grid Organics is a combination of farm digester and a food waste depackager project. The project includes a food waste depackager, food waste tanks, manure tanks, anaerobic digester, effluent tank, gas skid and engine. The project produces 450 KW electricity that services 9 municipalities in Western Massachusetts. They receive food waste from the local area including juice waste, fats, oils and greases, ice cream waste and biodiesel waste. The depackager allows them to receive solid and packaged food waste along with liquid slurried waste. This project is a partnership between the farm family and Ag-Grid Energy. The project is also supported via an ITC partnership, local utility grants, MassDEP grants, NRCS grants and MassCEC grants. The variety of partnerships makes this project a major collaboration.
Valley View | Greencastle, MO
ABC Member: Roeslein Alternative Energy
The transmission of Renewable Natural Gas into the neighboring pipeline is what sets this project apart. A low-pressure natural gas transmission line connecting a Smithfield Hog Farm, located in Northern Missouri, with the City of Milan’s natural gas distribution system. Businesses and private residences alike will have access to the RNG to offset their regular fuel consumption. This project is the first pipeline built to transport RNG to a Local Distribution Company in Missouri. The farm can direct inject or transport gas by virtual pipeline. A second gas cleaning system added next to existing facility and an additional 8 lagoons were added. A second membrane system allows them to compare competing membrane technologies. This is a trusted partnership with City of Milan.
Vanguard/Vermont Gas Project | Salisbury, VT
ABC Member: Vanguard Renewables
This project is a unique partnership between Vanguard Renewables, Vermont Gas, Middlebury College and Goodrich Family farm in Salisbury Vermont. The project will create biogas from manure and food waste, converting it to pipeline quality gas, for use by Middlebury College and Vermont Gas’ customers. This project will also have phosphorus removal system that will address water quality issues on the farm. This project is a first of it’s kind, due to the size and the fact that the renewable gas will be sold to end customers and is not dependent on the RIN markets. This project will bring diversity to the industry by developing markets for RNG outside the RIN markets.
Yellow Jacket | Byron, NY
ABC Member: Brightmark Energy, Martin Construction Resource
This is Brightmark Energy’s biggest anaerobic digestion project to date. This project is a partnership with farmers who are on the leading edge of sustainability so that they can improve their bottom lines while being good stewards of their local environment. Previously, the anaerobic digesters on these farms produced electricity that was used both onsite by the farms and transmitted to the local electric grid. However, some of the digesters are more than 10 years old, and they had begun to cost more to maintain and operate than they generated in value. After refurbishment work is completed on the systems, participating farmers expect to see drastically greater returns on their digesters, while further minimizing the local environmental impacts of the manure generated by their herds.
The winners will be announced at the ABC Biogas Industry Awards Dinner. Make sure to buy your tickets >>
