American Biogas Council launches Carbon Accounting Tool

The American Biogas Council (ABC) has launched its Biogas Carbon Accounting Tool (Biogas CAT), a tool to count the full lifecycle emissions of biogas projects.
This new tool was prepared for the ABC by EcoEngineers, a leading clean energy consulting, auditing and advisory firm, to fill gaps that ABC said no other carbon tools provide.
By using the Biogas CAT, biogas project developers can now accurately quantify carbon emissions data for companies that purchase renewable energy from biogas to meet their voluntary greenhouses gas reduction targets, said the association.
This allows voluntary buyers to more accurately report their emissions cuts to their customers and shareholders.
In turn, precise emissions data allows biogas projects to participate fairly in carbon markets that trade carbon certificates and realise the fair value of their investments.
The Biogas CAT builds on existing compliance and voluntary carbon market methodologies to create a foundation of science-based, peer-reviewed carbon accounting, and adds to it specifics to individual biogas projects that are missing in all the other carbon tools.
With the combined capabilities, any entity generating carbon-based credits–or policy–can use this tool to ensure that its carbon accounting is consistent and accurate across the many ways biogas can be produced.
“Thousands of companies, large and small, have already voluntarily committed to shrinking their carbon footprint and want to use renewable natural gas (RNG) and biogas-generated electricity as one way to do so; now we have a common way to properly account for the full lifecycle emissions of biogas projects, each of which can vary substantially in how much methane and CO2 it reduces,” said the ABC’s executive director Patrick Serfass. “Developers, policymakers, customers, and regulators all need to accurately count carbon emissions to maximise environmental and economic benefits together.”
Prior to the introduction of the Biogas CAT, the market’s most usable model was GREET, created by the Argonne National Lab primarily to serve California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard programme, said the ABC.
It commented that, while GREET is still a gold-standard tool, it is only focused on the use of renewable fuels for vehicles and it does not account for the environmental benefits of replacing synthetic fertiliser use with digested material from biogas systems, one of their key benefits.
The Biogas CAT builds from the strengths of GREET and other carbon tools and fills in the parts that have always been missing because the developers of those tools are not biogas experts, said the organisation.
“Joining Argonne’s GREET model, Washington State’s LCFC, and Canada’s openLCA, Biogas CAT is an innovation in communicating the importance and benefits of carbon reductions accessible through biogas and RNG,” said Ben Gerber, CEO of M-RETS. “M-RETS launched our thermal system with the intention for people to understand the science-based emissions reductions provided by low-carbon gas and fuels.
"Providing simplified access to these types of models is critical in strengthening trust. Biogas CAT is another arrow in the quiver of voluntary producers and consumers to easily access the reductions that can be communicated to their supply chains.”
“Eco’s collaboration with ABC to develop the Biogas CAT tool reflects our commitment to advancing scientific rigour and transparency in biogas carbon intensity measurement, and we applaud ABC for identifying the importance of these tools within the biogas industry,” said Brad Pleima, president of EcoEngineers. “The tool builds on our earlier collaboration to create a standardised, transparent, and science-based methodology for biogas projects, enabling clear, verified carbon accounting. We’re excited to continue innovating with ABC to enhance the biogas value chain.”