TotalEnergies, Clean Energy break ground on first biogas unit

France's TotalEnergies and its US partner Clean Energy have broken ground on their first biomethane production unit in Friona, Texas, the companies said on November 30.

The facility situated at the Del Rio Dairy farm will be supplied with livestock manure to produce more than 40 GWh of biomethane annually. The gas will be distributed by Clean Energy via its network of filling stations, providing fuel for 200-300 trucks each year.

Cow manure is a significant source of emissions of methane, which has a much greater greenhouse gas potency than CO₂. The project will prevent some 45,000 metric tons of CO₂ equivalent of this gas from escaping into the atmosphere each year.

TotalEnergies said it was consolidating its entry into the US biomethane market, hailing the project as another step in its "transformation into a multi-energy company, and in the implementation of its ambition to be a major player in renewables."

Clean Energy said the plant would help it provide 100% negative carbon emissions fuel at all of its North American stations by 2025.

TotalEnergies bought a minority stake in 2018 in Clean Energy, the leading US supplier of natural gas vehicle fuels. The pair set up a 50-50 joint venture to produce biomethane in March this year.