Clean Energy opens Iowa RNG facility

Clean Energy Fuels Corp., Newport Beach, California, has launched a renewable natural gas (RNG) facility in State Center, Iowa. The Marshall Ridge Dairy project is expected to produce 1.7 million gallons of RNG annually.

The three-digester facility is now producing pipeline quality RNG and injecting it into the national grid.

“We value working with forward thinking farmers, helping them create a new revenue stream from what would have been considered waste,” says 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 decarbonize commercial transport.”

RELATED: Clean Energy Fuels opens South Dakota RNG facility

Methane from the approximately 240,000 gallons of manure produced by the 8,000-cow herd each day will be converted into biogas and ready-to-use clean fuel for heavy-duty fleets across the country, Clean Energy says. The company is in the process of filing the necessary applications to generate federal and state environmental credits.

“We have been in the business of milking cows for over 60 years, and that’s what our core business will always be,” says Kevin Blood of Marshall Ridge Dairy. “Adding an RNG facility to our farm will enable us to manage our manure much better while generating an additional revenue stream for our bottom line.”

The project totaled $42 million. It was financed through one of Clean Energy’s production joint ventures and  developed by Menasha, Wisconsin-based Dynamic Renewables.

As previously reported by Waste Today, Clean Energy announced the launch of another RNG production facility in South Dakota earlier this month. The Tri-Cross Dairy is projected to produce 1 million gallons of RNG each year.