There’s a new production facility in South Dakota that is turning livestock manure into renewable natural gas.
What’s happening:
- Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ:CLNE) has officially begun production at their new gas digester facility for renewable natural gas located on a dairy farm in South Dakota
The big idea:
- Renewable natural gas is exactly the same as natural gas on a chemical composition level, however it is produced entirely through organic waste instead of drilling or fracking
- When organic waste or livestock manure decays it produces methane gas, which can them be processed and purified and turned into renewable natural gas
How it works:
- Organic waste or livestock manure is collected and then transported into a large tanker known as a digester
- As the manure or organic waste decomposes, it produces methane gas emissions which are then trapped inside of the digester preventing it from entering the atmosphere
- Those methane gas emissions then go through a process of being purified and turned into renewable natural gas that can be directly put into existing natural gas pipeline infrastructure to go to fuelling stations
By the numbers:
- The cost of building Clean Energy Fuels newest production facility was $34M USD
- It is expected to produce 1M gallons of negative carbon intensity renewable natural gas
- The production facility is built on site at a 5,000 dairy cow farm in South Dakota
- Clean Energy Fuels currently has more than 600 fuelling locations across North America that provide renewable natural gas for commercial transportation vehicles
Why it matters:
- Renewable natural gas has enormous potential for the environment, as it reduces carbon emissions both at the source of production and while it’s being used as fuel for commercial vehicles
- Switching from diesel fuelled vehicles to renewable natural gas vehicles is one of the easiest way for large companies to drastically reduce their carbon footprint
Going deeper:
- Clean Energy Fuels has partnerships with a variety of notable companies, including Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and UPS (NYSE: UPS)
