$120 million digester set to be built in Philadelphia

The Philadelphia Inquirer reported that renewable methane producer RNG Energy Solutions had formed a joint venture with Philadelphia Energy Solutions to build a $120 million (€102 million) anaerobic digester.

The report claims that the project, named the Point Breeze Renewable Energy Project, will be able to covert upwards of 1,100 tons of food waste into methane gas.

It will be built on 22 acres of land in the refinery’s North Yard area.

The factory is calculated to produce approximately 3 million cubic feet of gas a day. President of RNG Energy Solutions James Potter claims that there is a strong market for the biogas from owners of truck fleets and municipal buses.

“People definitely want to pay a premium for this type of renewable product, which will be used as transportation fuel,” said Potter.

“We've learned that communities want to achieve certain sustainability goals and will seek to divert their own organic waste streams to our facility.”

RNG is currently developing similar energy systems in Seattle, Boston and New Jersey, aimed at collecting metropolitan food waste to reduce the distance the material needs to be transported.

 

The project is estimated to be completed in two to three years.