Biogas systems protect our air, water, and soil by recycling organic waste into renewable energy and soil products, while reducing GHG emissions.
In the U.S., there is an urgent need to manage the millions of tons of food, water and animal waste. The main benefits of biogas systems come from the fact that they are recycling all this material while also producing renewable energy and soil products which displace fossil fuels.
When you put these and other benefits together, we can prevent tons of carbon emissions from entering our air, prevent nutrients from entering our waterways, create healthier soils with natural, non-fossil fuel-based fertilizers, and produce reliable, baseload renewable energy.
Environmental Benefits
- Recycle manure and kill odors and pathogens while producing renewable energy and soil products
- Help assist the natural cycles of recycling to farming
- Moving manure from open lagoons to an airtight biogas system reduces GHG emissions
- Reduce carbon emissions in transportation by at least half compared to fossil fuels
- Recycling manure creates an opportunity to separate nutrients and keep them out of waterways
- The use of digestate can replace costly synthetic fertilizers and can increase plant growth by 10-30 percent compared to synthetic fertilizers
- Plants absorb soil nutrients, like nitrogen or phosphorus, more easily than raw manure. This allows farmers to use the right volume and ratio of nutrients needed and minimize the additional purchase of synthetic fertilizers.
Economic Benefits
- A cost-effective solution to turning a high-cost deliverable like waste treatment into a revenue-generating opportunity for farmers and rural communities
- For companies that want to reduce their carbon footprint, some biogas systems are so carbon negative that replacing a small percentage of fossil gas with renewable biogas or renewable natural gas can help reach net-zero goals
- Create new revenue streams in rural America, building resiliency against commodity price fluctuations.
- Can reduce farm costs for animal bedding and fertilizer and generate new revenue streams.
- A driver for economic growth and offer local jobs in construction, engineering, project management and more
Reduce the volume of waste, meaning that costs are often lowered for facilities like wastewater plants
Energy Benefits
- A renewable source of energy that is a direct replacement for non-renewable, carbon-intensive fossil fuels
- Produce renewable energy 24/7/365 with a reliability rate of 95%–in comparison, the average reliability rate for solar power is 25% and 35% for wind power
- Biogas supports distributed generation of energy, which means lower transmission and transportation costs as well as reduced impact and higher reliability of electrical grids
- Systems with gas storage can provide renewable electricity on demand in minutes, reducing the need to turn on fossil fueled power plants to meet peak demand
- Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) procured from biogas can be used interchangeably with natural gas for heating, electricity, and the production of quality biomethane and transportation fuel
- By purchasing RNG, large gas customers support their ESG goals, reduce fossil fuel use, and decrease their carbon footprint
- The thermal heat needed in industrial manufacturing (that only gas can support) is responsible for around 11% of U.S. emissions. Biogas is currently the most sustainable way to address these emissions.
Biogas Industry Statistics
Today, the U.S. has more than 2,300 sites producing biogas in 50 states, including 530 farms, 1,120 water resource recovery facilities, 110 stand-alone systems that digest food waste and 580 landfills.
Building out the U.S. biogas infrastructure could produce 100 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity per year (9.3 million homes), 33 billion BTU of renewable heat per hour (4.3 million homes), or fuel for vehicles equivalent to 15.4 billion gallons per year (32 million vehicles).
Step 1
1 ORGANIC MATERIAL
Organic materials are the “input” or “feedstock” for a biogas system. Some organic materials will digest more readily than others.
- Animal Manure
- Food Scraps
- Wastewater Biosolids
- Restaurant Grease
- Organic Byproducts
Step 2
2THE DIGESTER
An anaerobic digester is a system of airtight tanks that can be equipped for mixing and warming organic material.
Step 3a
3aBIOGAS
Biogas consists mostly of methane and carbon dioxide, plus water vapor, and other trace compounds (e.g., siloxanes)
- Heat
- Bioplastics
- Electricity
- Vehicle Fuel
- Renewable Natural Gas
Some biogas can be used to heat the digester!
Step 3b
3bDIGESTED MATERIAL (DIGESTATE)
In addition to biogas, digesters produce solid and liquid digestate, containing valuable nutrients (nitrogen, phosphorus & potassium) and organic carbon.
- Fertilizer
- Soil Amendments
- Animal Bedding
- Other Products
- Horticulture Products
Digested material may be returned for livestock, agricultural and gardening uses!
RNG
RENEWABLE NATURAL GAS
Biogas processed to gas pipeline quality is often called biomethane, renewable natural gas, or RNG.
Biogas Market Snapshot
This one-pager includes high level information on the current state of the biogas industry and potential of biogas in the United States.
Biogas Acronyms
A list of acronyms you may find throughout this website and other biogas resources with their definitions.
State Profiles
This one-pager includes high level information on the current state of the biogas industry and potential of biogas in the United States.
Biogas Definitions
A list of words you may find throughout this website and other biogas resources with their definitions.