Clean Energy Fuels launches second Midwest RNG facility

California-based Clean Energy Fuels said February 14 it had launched a $42mn renewable energy project (RNG) on a dairy farm in Iowa, the second such US Midwest project announced in the past week.

The Marshall Ridge Dairy project, on an 8,000-cow dairy operation in Marshall County, Iowa, is expected to produce 1.7mn gallons/year of low carbon-intensity RNG, which is being injected into the national gas distribution grid. It is comprised of three digesters processing 240,000 gallons/day of manure produced by the herd.

“We value working with forward thinking farmers, helping them create a new revenue stream from what would have been considered waste,” said Clay Corbus, senior vice president for renewables at Clean Energy. “RNG is an immediate, smart way to address harmful fugitive emissions, and the RNG produced at Marshall Ridge will directly help to cleanly fuel and decarbonise commercial transport.”

The announcement of the Iowa operation follows on the heels of a South Dakota facility that CEF said February 8 is now operating and producing 1mn gallons/year of RNG. Both RNG production facilities, and several others to come, were financed through one of CEF’s production joint ventures and developed by Dynamic Renewables.