Cayuga Digester and Biogas Plant Can Turn Waste into 57 GWh of RNG Power
Waste-to-energy project developer Generate Upcycle has reopened the upgraded Cayuga Anaerobic Digester and Biogas Plant in western New York.
Generation Upcycle worked three years and spent close to $30 million to ready Cayuga for producing renewable natural gas (RNG). The site is now “hot commissioned” and injecting RNG into a nearby natural gas pipeline.
RNG is converted from food and other organic waste streams into biogas basically identical in chemical and energy properties to processed natural gas from drilling production. The digester at Cayuga can reportedly convert 90,000 tons of food waste annually into RNG as well as nitrogen-rich organic fertilizer for local farmland.
“We’re particularly excited about the Cayuga facility because it not only allows us to process organic waste into renewable natural gas, but we are also able to capture significant amounts of recyclable packaging materials, says Bill Caesar, President of Generate Upcycle, in a statement.
Cayuga Anaerobic Digester and Biogas Plant is in Auburn, New York, part of an agricultural region near the Finger Lakes. The facility is expected to generate close to 195,000 million British thermal units (Btus) of RNG energy annually-equivalent to about 57 GWh of electricity net generation.
Producing RNG also reduces waste methane emissions. Methane is considered multiple times more destructive to the environment than carbon emissions, according to many scientists.
The Cayuga Digester is one of three Generate Upcycle anaerobic digester facilities in New York State, including locations in Buffalo and Niagara.
Generate Upcycle owns and operates 12 anaerobic digestion (AD) sites across the U.S., Canada, and the UK.
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