Renewable Dairy Fuels, a business unit of Amp Americas, has opened the nation’s largest dairy renewable natural gas plant in Jasper County.
The new plant turns 945 tons of manure each day from dairy cows into fuel for transportation, delivered through NIPSCO’s natural gas pipeline system. The new natural gas production facility is about 50 percent larger than the similar operation Renewable Dairy Fuels established at Fair Oaks Farms in 2011.
“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,” Amp Americas Chief Executive Officer Grant Zimmerman said. “There’s an abundance of dairy waste on farms all over the country that could be better leveraged to meet the demand for RNG.”
The Jasper County biogas operation collects dairy waste from 16,000 milking cows on four farms, and heats it to trigger anaerobic digestion, where it’s feasted upon by microbes. Methane is released, and then captured, purified, and compressed into fuel for vehicles. The compressed natural gas is then sold at filling stations and used to power fleets across the country.
Former Camco Clean Energy executive Andy Dvoracek signed on as vice president of business development to boost Renewable Dairy Fuels’ biogas business, which includes compressed natural gas fleets at UPS, US Foods and Dairy Farmers of America.
“Andy has as much experience in RNG and working with dairy farms to reduce carbon emissions as anyone in the industry,” Zimmerman said. “We’ve worked extensively with Andy through our long-term partnership with Camco, one that will become even stronger with Andy on our team. With his wealth of valuable knowledge and strong network within the industry, he will be instrumental in helping us develop future dairy RNG projects.”
Source: NWI Times