The largest dairy to Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) project in the U.S. is now operational in the State of Indiana. This is Renewable Dairy Fuels (RDF)’s second biogas facility to produce RNG from dairy waste and it is delivering into Northern Indiana Public Service Company (NIPSCO)’s natural gas pipeline system to be used as transportation fuel.
The Jasper County site will convert 945 tons of manure per day generated from 16,000 head of milking cows from the Bos, Herrema and Windy Ridge dairy farms into 100 percent renewable transportation fuel. The new facility is 50 percent larger than RDF’s first operation at Fair Oaks Farms in Indiana which has been online since 2011 and was the first (and the largest until today) dairy biogas-to-transportation fuel project in the country.
A pioneer in the renewable transportation fuel industry, Amp Americas, of which RDF is a business unit, continues to expand its national footprint and to invest heavily in dairy RNG projects by partnering with dairy farmers across the country to bring more ultra-low CI gas to market. The company, already producing at an annual rate of over 4 million gallons of RNG, is working on projects that will increase that rate in 2019 and beyond.
In addition, the company’s network of high performance, ultra fast-fill CNG fueling stations operating under the name of Amp CNG is now up to twenty and continues to grow. The company supports some of the largest CNG fleets in the country including UPS, US Foods and Dairy Farmers of America.
“RNG reduces greenhouse gas emissions by up to 100 percent when compared to diesel. In addition to improving air quality and sustainability, converting dairy waste into transportation fuel improves farm profitability, creates well paying rural jobs and saves fleets money,” said Grant Zimmerman, CEO at Amp Americas. “There’s an abundance of dairy waste on farms all over the country that could be better leveraged to meet the demand for RNG.”
Cow manure from four farms is collected from the barns and delivered to tanks where it is heated to facilitate a process called anaerobic digestion. Much like digestive bacteria and enzymes in a cow’s stomach, microbes inside the tanks work to break down the waste and release methane, a form of renewable natural gas. The biogas is captured, purified, and compressed to become RNG that is then injected into the pipeline.
Amp Americas is a member of NGVAmerica and Associate Member of NGV Global.
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