Continued RNG Growth Could Undercut Shale Dominance

Companies focused on turning methane wafting from waste-filled landfills, livestock farms and dairies into renewable natural gas (RNG) grew production capacity by 22% in the last year as they look to bring more projects online.

Data from a report released this week by Energy Vision, a New York City-based environmental nonprofit group and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory, show that 305 operational RNG facilities produced enough fuel by year-end 2023 to displace the equivalent of nearly 843 million gallons of diesel annually.

“Our data shows rapid growth in the production of renewable natural gas from the methane created by decomposing food and other organic wastes,” Marianne Mintz, who manages the project for Argonne National Laboratory, said in a news release. “Capturing that methane, using it to displace fossil fuels and burning it in vehicles significantly cuts greenhouse gas emissions.”

The drive to seek out lower emissions fuels is leading to a surge in RNG projects. After being upgraded to pipeline quality, RNG may be placed in existing pipeline networks and used the same way as fossil natural gas to generate electricity, fuel vehicles and more.

RNG has carbon intensities ranging from low to negative depending on the feedstock used. In the news release, Energy Vision pointed out that RNG produced from food waste or farm manure is carbon-negative based on Argonne National Laboratory’s GREET emissions modeling tool.

The updated database of RNG projects showed that more than half of the operational facilities used biogas from livestock and agriculture and just over one-third were landfills. Water resource recovery facilities and food waste accounted for the rest, according to the report. Combined, RNG projects produced more than 108.4 million MMBtu/year in 2023, up 22% from 2022.

In 2023, there were 125 projects under construction, with a planned combined capacity of about 35.4 million MMBtu. Another 111 projects were in the planning stage.

The list includes projects developed by Brightmark RNG Holdings, a joint venture (JV) between Chevron Corp. and Brightmark. Brightmark said it has reduced more than 1.1 million tons of CO₂ equivalent through its 23 dairy circularity centers across the U.S.

Earlier this year, the JV started producing RNG using anaerobic digesters at the Caballero Dairy in Arizona. The Caballero facility marked the JV’s first in southwest U.S. and came about a year after the two announced five new aerobic digestion dairy farm projects in Michigan.

Anaerobic digesters are oxygen-free tanks in which bacteria is used to break down waste to produce biogas.

Despite industry-wide progress, RNG accounts for less than 1% of the U.S. gas market. State and federal incentives such as the Renewable Fuel Standard and California Low Carbon Fuel Standard are, however, encouraging developers to pursue projects. Such incentives help offset some of the higher costs associated with producing RNG compared to fossil gas.

“While the expansion of RNG production in the U.S. documented in this assessment is an important step forward, we need to see much more if we’re to have a real shot at achieving the Global Methane Pledge,” said Matt Tomich, president of Energy Vision. “The U.S.’ domestic RNG production potential is 7 to 12 times greater than current production. Continued growth in the U.S. RNG market could make this buildout possible.”

The Global Methane Pledge aims to cut anthropogenic methane emissions at least 30% by 2030.

Citing a different Energy Vision report, the organization pointed out that the U.S. could reduce methane emissions by 13.6% with about 4,700 more anaerobic digesters in place to process food waste and manure into renewable energy.

“Reaching full U.S. RNG production potential would generate enough fuel to displace over 25% of current U.S. on-road diesel demand (saving 10 billion gallons or more annually),” according to Energy Vision’s calculations, “and reduce overall GHG emissions by an estimated 120 million metric tons (CO₂e annualized on a lifecycle basis).”