• Exclusive Content
  • Events
  • Endeavor Business Media Energy
    1. Energy Efficiency

    City of Pasco WA Contracts RNG, Biogas Partners to Upgrade Water Treatment From Food Processors

    March 11, 2025
    The facility transforms process water from seven local food processing plants and, through a combination of processes, the PRRC generates RNG, soil amendments, algae for use in bioproducts, and returns clean water to be used for agricultural irrigation, while reducing environmental impact.
    Rendering of Process Water Reuse Facility credit city of Pasco, Wa.
    Rendering of Process Water Reuse Facility credit city of Pasco, Wa.

    A city in Washington state where the Lewis and Clark Expedition once camped is treading a new path toward sustainability in its wastewater treatment facility.

    The city of Pasco will work with numerous partners to transform process water from local food processing plants into renewable natural gas (RNG) and other bioproducts. The city is working with Burnham RNG, Biogas Engineering, Cascade Natural Gas, Gross-Wen Technologies, Sustainable Energy Ventures, Swinerton Energy, and Xylem.

    Together they work on expansion of the Process Water Reuse Facility (PWRF) and Pasco Resource Recovery Center (PRRC). The facility transforms process water from seven local food processing plants and, through a combination of processes, the PRRC generates RNG, soil amendments, algae for use in bioproducts, and returns clean water to be used for agricultural irrigation, while reducing environmental impact.

    “By repurposing water from food processing plants, we’re improving our environmental impact, meeting state and federal environmental standards, and harnessing valuable resources like renewable natural gas, all while sharing costs with industry partners,” said Maria Serra, Pasco public works director, in a statement.

    The expansion of system users in the Pasco area, including the addition of milk processing Darigold, enables increased demand for process water treatment. Darigold is building a new $600 million milk processing plant in Pasco.

    The upgraded PWRF will increase treatment capacity and enhance environmental benefits at a reduced cost, due to Pasco’s strategic 30-year public-private partnership with Burnham RNG, a developer, owner and operator of the PRRC.

    "This project does much more than treat wastewater; it unlocks long-term value for the city of Pasco and its industries," Burnham RNG CEO Chris Tynan stated. 

    The upgraded system can recycle more than one billion gallons of water annually from local food processors, treating it to a higher standard for safer agricultural irrigation. Two 34-million-gallon anaerobic digesters provided by Xylem will use micro-organisms to break down organic material in the process water.

    The anaerobic digestion process will produce raw biogas that will be purified to pipeline quality RNG using advanced gas upgrading technology engineered and supplied by Biogas Engineering. The RNG, which has the same energy quality of pipeline ready methane, will be locally distributed by Cascade Natural Gas.

    A greenhouse filtration system from Gross-Wen Technologies will use algae to recover nitrogen while also capturing carbon dioxide, benefiting both water and air quality. The facility’s newly expanded holding ponds will store treated water until it is needed for irrigation, ensuring efficient and sustainable use of resources.

    Swinerton Energy served as the engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the PRRC.

    Pasco is the seat of Franklin County in southern Washington. In 1805, Lewis and Clark encamped there at the confluence of the Snake and Columbia rivers in the area now known as Sacajawea State Park.

    RNG is One of Many Paths to Net Zero

    Track Them All through our Free ET Transitions ENL

     

     

    About the Author

    EnergyTech Staff

    Rod Walton is senior editor for EnergyTech.com. He has spent 14 years covering the energy industry as a newspaper and trade journalist.

    Walton formerly was energy writer and business editor at the Tulsa World. Later, he spent six years covering the electricity power sector for Pennwell and Clarion Events. He joined Endeavor and EnergyTech in November 2021.

    He can be reached at [email protected]. 

    EnergyTech is focused on the mission critical and large-scale energy users and their sustainability and resiliency goals. These include the commercial and industrial sectors, as well as the military, universities, data centers and microgrids.

    Many large-scale energy users such as Fortune 500 companies, and mission-critical users such as military bases, universities, healthcare facilities, public safety and data centers, shifting their energy priorities to reach net-zero carbon goals within the coming decades. These include plans for renewable energy power purchase agreements, but also on-site resiliency projects such as microgrids, combined heat and power, rooftop solar, energy storage, digitalization and building efficiency upgrades.