All Articles
Climate Tech

The Public Company Converting Manure To Renewable Natural Gas

February 10, 2024
x min read
The Public Company Converting Manure To Renewable Natural Gas

There’s a new production facility in South Dakota that is turning livestock manure into renewable natural gas.

What’s happening:

  • Clean Energy Fuels (NASDAQ:CLNE) has officially begun production at their new gas digester facility for renewable natural gas located on a dairy farm in South Dakota

The big idea:

  • Renewable natural gas is exactly the same as natural gas on a chemical composition level, however it is produced entirely through organic waste instead of drilling or fracking
  • When organic waste or livestock manure decays it produces methane gas, which can them be processed and purified and turned into renewable natural gas

How it works:

  • Organic waste or livestock manure is collected and then transported into a large tanker known as a digester
  • As the manure or organic waste decomposes, it produces methane gas emissions which are then trapped inside of the digester preventing it from entering the atmosphere
  • Those methane gas emissions then go through a process of being purified and turned into renewable natural gas that can be directly put into existing natural gas pipeline infrastructure to go to fuelling stations

By the numbers:

  • The cost of building Clean Energy Fuels newest production facility was $34M USD
  • It is expected to produce 1M gallons of negative carbon intensity renewable natural gas
  • The production facility is built on site at a 5,000 dairy cow farm in South Dakota
  • Clean Energy Fuels currently has more than 600 fuelling locations across North America that provide renewable natural gas for commercial transportation vehicles

Why it matters:

  • Renewable natural gas has enormous potential for the environment, as it reduces carbon emissions both at the source of production and while it’s being used as fuel for commercial vehicles
  • Switching from diesel fuelled vehicles to renewable natural gas vehicles is one of the easiest way for large companies to drastically reduce their carbon footprint

Going deeper:

  • Clean Energy Fuels has partnerships with a variety of notable companies, including Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) and UPS (NYSE: UPS)

Discover the world's most disruptive early stage companies with 35,000+ investors.

The markets and trends that matter, made simple.

Join top talent at the world's most respected institutions, companies, and venture capital funds.
Thank you! Your submission has been received!
Oops! Something went wrong while submitting the form.