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Top: Patrick Serfass, John Dannan, Lauran Turner; bottom: Paul Niznik, Sean Wine PHOTO: RNG
market. “I might be interested in the development of swine effluent, low-capex biogas capture,” he said. “If there was a site with an open pond or lagoon, we might look at some retro-style electricity production that can also enter into some of these low CI markets … they get a lot of upcharge, extra credit generation through specifics of the rules. I would like to have that optionality if I had all my chips in one basket—not only to have the option of cleaning up the gas and getting it into the pipeline if convenient, but also go back to power generation.” Low- and ultra-low CI projects continued to be a topic of conversation. Turner discussed the potential of landfills and the fact that there are still many without
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gas collection systems, adding that her company is a proponent of sliding-scale CI scores. “We’re looking at all strategies to reduce CI, whether that’s incorporating onsite solar for electricity needs, or incorporating carbon capture and sequestration,” she said. “We have a team of geologists and we’re working with the EPA to permit projects that make sense to capture CO2 from the landfills and put it back in the ground. So that’s going to lower the CI.” As for other types of untapped or underutilized resources, Dannan said poultry litter is a more difficult feedstock to gather, manage and digest from a physical perspective, but it’s also tougher to acquire from a business model perspective. “That’s why it hasn’t taken off so much.”
Wine agreed, adding that swine projects also pose challenges. “What’s nice for dairy is that it’s a pretty steady cycle—they eat feed, manure is produced and then it goes into the capturing system ... it’s more of a seamless process and easier to manage than poultry and hog facilities. Hogs don’t produce as much—there is a lot more hog, but a lot less gas production. A cow does about 120, 150 gallons of RNG a year, and a hog is significantly lower than that, with generally lower volatile solids.” One of the final questions panelists were asked is about the possibility of a standard way of measuring CI outside of California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard considering other states are working to develop programs, whether it will be a gener-
