Clean Energy Fuels completes South Dakota RNG facility

Clean Energy Fuels said January 11 it had completed its latest renewable natural gas (RNG) facility at Drumgoon Dairy in Lake Norden, South Dakota and was injecting RNG into the interstate natural gas pipeline system.

The $38mn project, which added anaerobic digestion capabilities to the 6,500-cow dairy operation, is expected to deliver 1.66mn gallons/year of negative carbon-intensity RNG at full capacity.

The RNG produced at Drumgoon will be virtually stored until all pathways for federal and state environmental credits are approved, and a carbon-intensity score is assigned to the RNG, expected in the first half of 2024.

“Completion of the RNG project at Drumgoon Dairy, along with several others that are right behind it, is already making a contribution to controlling harmful greenhouse gas emissions,” said Clay Corbus, senior vice president of renewables at Clean Energy. “Adding a RNG digester that captures the methane produced by Drumgoon’s cows and turning it into a clean fuel is the ultimate recycling project.”

The Drumgoon project was financed through Clean Energy’s joint venture with BP, developed with Dynamic Renewables and is one of several RNG projects the three companies are developing at dairies in the US Midwest.

All of the RNG produced at Drumgoon will be available at Clean Energy’s fueling infrastructure, from which RNG sales into the transportation sector grow by 17% through the first nine months of 2023.