Gevo Inc (NASDAQ:GEVO) said that its renewable natural gas (RNG) project in Northwest Iowa has been producing biogas and is now upgrading and injecting RNG into the natural gas pipeline.
The RNG Project generates RNG captured from cow manure supplied by three dairy farms located in Northwest Iowa totaling over 20,000 milking cows, the company said.
Gevo expects the project to generate approximately 355,000 MMBtu of RNG per year at full operating capacity, which will be transported, marketed and sold in California by BP Canada Energy Marketing Corp and BP Products North America Inc on behalf of Gevo.
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“The success that Gevo is achieving in Northwest Iowa right now is the result of the team of dedicated people who are working to change the world by converting waste into useful energy, animal bedding, and soil fertilizer,” Gevo president and COO Dr Chris Ryan said in a statement.
“These talented people have been tasked with an important, complex job, and work every day to identify issues, formulate solutions, and execute their plan to achieve our goals. As this renewable energy supply becomes reliable, the entire circular economy model can grow and prosper.
“Supplying value-added animal feed to dairies and to other animal feed operations, capturing the manure, then converting the manure to make RNG for use in the production of transportation fuels, more animal feed, and later, jet fuel when our Net-Zero 1 plant operates. This is an example of the circular economy in action,” he added.
The RNG Project is expected to generate between $16 and $22 million of Project EBITDA per year beginning 2023 depending on a variety of assumptions, including the value of credits under the federal Renewable Fuel Standard Program (RFS) and the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) in California, Gevo said.
The company expects to get approval for Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) through RFS and carbon credits from LCFS later this year or next year.
Gevo’s mission is to transform renewable energy and carbon into energy-dense liquid hydrocarbons. These liquid hydrocarbons can be used for drop-in transportation fuels such as gasoline, jet fuel and diesel fuel, that when burned have the potential to yield net-zero greenhouse gas emissions when measured across the full life cycle of the products.
The company uses low-carbon renewable resource-based carbohydrates as raw materials and is in an advanced state of developing renewable electricity and renewable natural gas for use in production processes, resulting in low-carbon fuels with substantially reduced carbon intensity.
Contact the author at jon.hopkins@proactiveinvestors.com