Sunshine State’s first Landfill-to-Gas RNG facility operational

Jan. 9, 2023
The facility has a capacity of 2,500 standard cubic feet per minute of landfill gas, which is expected to produce around 5 million gasoline gallon equivalent per year of RNG, helping achieve zero emissions

Renewable fuels supply company OPAL Fuels has completed the ramp-up period of the first landfill gas to renewable natural gas (RNG) facility in Florida.

The facility, sited at the New River Solid Waste Association (NRSWA) municipal solid waste landfill in Raiford, converts biogas produced by the decomposition of organic material into RNG, a low-carbon fuel that can be used to replace fossil fuels, such as diesel.

Want to learn the ins & outs and workability of Renewable Natural Gas

Our Webinar this Wednesday features Enchanted Rock & EPRI

Details of Enchanted's RNG work for Microsoft & how RNG is made & can help Resiliency & Sustainability

The New-York based company says the RNG will be used to feed transportation customers at its fueling stations through the Peoples Gas distribution system, which serves over 445,000 homes and businesses across Florida.

The facility has a capacity of 2,500 standard cubic feet per minute of landfill gas, which is expected to produce around 5 million gasoline gallon equivalent per year of RNG, equivalent to achieving zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions from more than 380 heavy-duty trucks.

The process of refining the biogas also results in significant reductions in local emissions, including decreases of 90% in carbon monoxide, 95% in carbon dioxide, 98% in sulfur oxide, and 90% nitrogen oxide emissions.

“Through our vertical integration model, from production through distribution, OPAL Fuels is committed to providing our customers with cost effective, reliable transportation fuel that results in zero Scope 1 and Scope 2 emissions,” said Adam Comora, Co-CEO of OPAL Fuels. “Working together with NRSWA, this facility produces new revenue streams, new jobs for the county, and provides cost savings for our customers.”

Perry Kent, Executive Director, NRSWA, said, “This is the first project in Florida to convert gas from a municipal solid waste landfill to RNG and we are happy we have been able to lead the way. This project is one more step toward New River becoming a fully sustainable solid waste treatment facility.”

The NRSWA municipal solid waste landfill is a publicly owned waste facility formed as an association of three member Florida counties: Bradford, Baker, and Union Counties. The association also accepts contracted waste from out-of-region locations.

Peoples Gas is a subsidiary of Emera, an electric power generation, transmission and distribution company headquartered in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

About the Author

EnergyTech Staff

Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

He can be reached at [email protected]

EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.

Image credit Sage will examine the potential for geothermal baseload power generation to provide clean and resilient energy at the military base. The effort will consider geothermal technologies as well as the integration of hybrid energy solutions to generate cost-effective, 24/7 energy resilience.
geothermal_dreamstime
Image credit ID 61377225 © Donnie Shackleford | Dreamstime.com
dreamstime_farm
Image credit ID 325460376 © Scharfsinn86 | Dreamstime.com
dreamstime_rng
Image credit ID 278441421 © Tanaonte | Dreamstime.com
dreamstime_saf