Projects
Clean World Partners Grant For Pre-Development Activities for a Biomethane Production Facility
Clean World Partners, LLC will study ways to turn food and green waste into usable natural gas at Sacramento's Recycling and Transfer Station.
The Energy Commission grant will allow the project participants to evaluate the technical, economic and environmental impacts of the facility itself; reduce any associated risks; perform tests that verify operating characteristics; and improve waste collection.
California landfills approximately 16 million tons of organic waste each year, a valuable resource that could become energy instead of decomposing trash. Clean World Partners develops anaerobic digestion systems to convert such discarded material into clean transportation fuel and reusable by-products, in the process, capturing the harmful greenhouse gas emissions that result from the natural breakdown of organic matter.
Besides biomethane, other products created by the facility will include renewable hydrogen, liquid fertilizer, compost and clean water.
The Recycling and Transfer Station will use an anaerobic digester system known as Anaerobic Phased Solids (APS) that uses less energy to operate than other systems. The innovative design has fewer moving parts, is highly scalable, uses commercially available components and minimizes pre-treatment time of the feedstock. The Sacramento facility will serve as a model to other landfill operations around the country.
Grant Amount
$1,315,800
Match Funding
$1,852,100 from the project's participants..
Project Participants
Clean World Partners, LLC, headquartered in Sacramento, a developer of innovative, advanced anaerobic digestion systems designed to convert waste into energy.
UC Davis' Dr. Ruihong Zhang, PhD., developer of the APS digester technology with extensive experience with data collection, analysis, and research in anaerobic digestion. She will be providing technical support, data collection, and report preparation.
Onsite Power Systems, Inc. , headquartered in Davis, is a privately held company that has secured an exclusive licensing and research agreement for the APS digester technology patented and protected by the University of California Regents.
SMUD will help assess and procure the feedstock needed for the program and will design the infrastructure required to use additives that enhance the production of biogas.
BLT Enterprises, an expert in the development and operation of material recovery facilities and transfer stations, will be responsible for waste processing and handling procedures.
Innovative Technical Solutions, Inc. will manage and coordinate the overall design, including site work, buildings, and systems for feedstock delivery and processing; the APS Digester; as well as gas conditioning and residual processing.
Environmental Management Corporation will be responsible for the commissioning of the facility as well as operation, management, and ongoing maintenance.
CalStart, a non-profit organization focused on the growth of clean transportation, will create data collection plans and protocols and help to determine potential fuel buyers.
Other participants include:
HDR, an international architecture, engineering and consulting firm with headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska will be responsible for process engineering, detailed design engineering and construction management of the APS digester.
Gas Technology Institute, an Illinois-based, not-for-profit Research and Development organization will help with the design of the biomethane clean-up, conditioning, storage, and delivery systems.
Project benefits:
Experts estimate that methane emissions from organic waste decomposing in landfills are 72 times more harmful than CO2 emissions created by automobiles. The Energy Commission grant will fund studies for a biomethane production facility that is expected to produce more than 71 million standard cubic feet of compressed natural gas each year. The fuel will be used by the Yolo County Transit District's CNG bus fleet and will meet over two-thirds of its annual CNG demand. This natural gas would displace 584,000 gallons of gasoline annually and reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 85 percent when compared to diesel.
The project will create 137 direct and 87 indirect jobs during the construction phase, and 16 full-time positions through 2030.
In addition to producing energy, the project will keep 36,500 tons of organic waste out of local landfills each year.
Grant Agreement Number: ARV-10-026