Newly-released data from the American Biogas Council (ABC) indicates that 2023 was the third year of record growth across the US biogas industry, with nearly 100 new projects coming online last year, representing $1.8 billion (€1.6 billion) in capital investments.
ABC expects this growth to continue into 2024, with more than 100 new projects already projected to go into operation this year.
Landfill gas leads both investment dollars and biogas output
Landfill gas (LFG) continues to dominate in terms of both total investment and biogas output.
The US currently has 566 LFG projects, including 23 new projects added in 2023.
This growth accounts for 57% of 2023 capital investments and a corresponding 67% of new US biogas production capacity.
Significant gains in agriculture, food waste
While the growth of the landfill gas sector was voluminous last year in terms of both dollars and biogas production, 2023 saw only 4-5% growth in that sector.
In comparison, agricultural sector experienced 13.4% growth, or nearly three times greater. Seventy new farm-based projects came online in 2023, contributing 21,000 SCFM of additional biogas output and resulting in capital investments exceeding $700 million (€653.9 million).
Renewable natural gas (RNG) cluster projects contributed most to this growth and to lowering the cost per project.
Cluster projects are generally characterised by multiple farms with at least one anaerobic digester linked together by one common, central gas processing and conditioning facility to turn the biogas into RNG.
The use of more lagoon-style biogas systems (a covered, in-ground, lined pit), which are less expensive than the more commonly used engineered tanks, also contributed to lower per-project costs.
Meanwhile, growth also continued in the smaller food waste sector, on par with landfill sector growth.
Three new stand-alone food waste biogas projects became operational in 2023, adding an extra capacity of 996 SCFM, bringing the total nationwide to 107. Ten more facilities are scheduled to launch in 2024.
Renewable electricity from biogas remains dominant, but growth is in RNG
While power projects that make renewable electricity from biogas account for 69% of all biogas produced in the US, RNG projects represented 91% of all new projects that came online in 2023.
This mainly stems from policies such as the federal Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) and the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), which promote using renewable fuels to replace fossil transportation fuels and to eliminate emissions in natural gas vehicles.
The inability for biogas projects to participate in the RFS when fueling electric vehicles continues to suppress growth in new power projects.
Click here to see more...