CARB validates carbon negative gas at Yolo County Central Landfill

Some of the biogas captured from the Yolo County Central Landfill in California has been certified as carbon negative by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) using technology from LoCI Controls and the American Biogas Council’s (ABC) Biogas Carbon Accounting Tool.

Sacramento-based LoCI Controls employs automated real-time data and controls systems at the landfill to optimize gas capture. According to the ABC, this significantly increases the amount of methane captured from the landfill and minimizes the amount of gas that escapes into the atmosphere.

The ABC’s Biogas Carbon Accounting Tool, developed in partnership with EcoEngineers, Des Moines, Iowa, helped the landfill achieve this record-low score by providing a second tool that validated a score manually calculated by CARB. The use of the ABC tool has been verified by third parties and certified by CARB.

“We developed the Biogas Carbon Accounting Tool in partnership with EcoEngineers exactly for this kind of use—to provide more precise emissions data for all types of biogas projects allowing them to fully realize their investments,” ABC Executive Director Patrick Serfass says. “If we want to encourage innovation, the tools companies use to be rewarded for doing good need to be innovative, too. It’s exciting to see our efforts to fill gaps that have existed for years pay off so quickly and enable inventive projects, allowing our industry to make more progress generating renewable energy from captured emissions.”

The carbon intensity score of Yolo County Central Landfill’s biogas -101 gCO₂e/MJ. CARB has officially recognized this application of LoCI technology with the ABC tool as the most carbon-negative landfill gas pathway in the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard to date.

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California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard rewards cleaner fuels, meaning that the more negative the score, the more valuable the credits. This means the Yolo County Central Landfill’s project is expected to generate more revenue while also delivering stronger climate benefits, according to the ABC.

“LoCI’s WellWatcher system provides landfill operations teams with real-time, actionable data that empowers them to make faster, more informed adjustments in the field,” LoCI Controls CEO Peter Quigley says. “By combining operator expertise with advanced monitoring and verification tools like the Biogas Carbon Accounting Tool, we helped demonstrate to the California Air Resources Board that the increased emissions reductions were real—showing how collaboration with partners like the American Biogas Council can further increase the value of captured biogas for sites like Yolo County."