American Organic Energy (AOE) has partnered with renewable natural gas (RNG) platform Viridi Energy to develop a food waste-to-RNG project in Yaphank, New York.
The project is expected to convert 210,000 tons of waste per year, which is equivalent to the annual food waste of Dallas, into clean energy and agriculture products.
According to Viridi, the AOE facility will house the first anaerobic digester dedicated to processing food waste in the New York City metropolitan area. The project will redirect food waste from landfills up to 300 miles away, transforming it into RNG through anaerobic digestion and other renewable products like fertilizer.
The initiative is expected to reduce emissions by nearly 100,000 tons of CO2 annually and produce renewable fuels equivalent to 10 million gallons of gasoline each year. Such projects often can reduce methane emissions, considered multiple times more harmful as a greenhouse gas, according to environmental experts.
Located at the Long Island Compost site, the facility is expected to have a carbon intensity of approximately -100gCO2e/MJ. The project aligns with the food waste reduction goals set by the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Environmental Protection Agency, which aim to decrease food waste by 50 percent by 2030.
Viridi has already signed an offtake agreement with Canadian energy solutions provider FortisBC for the project. Under the 20-year agreement, FortisBC will purchase the RNG produced at the AOE facility for its customers.
“This landmark project demonstrates to the renewable energy industry that large-scale food waste-to-RNG projects are viable as robust financial investments and as environmentally impactful solutions to our greenhouse gas emissions and food waste crises,” said Dan Crouse, CEO of Viridi.
This is the third significant project announced in the first half of this year by Viridi, which is backed by Warburg Pincus and Green Rock Energy Partners. In March, the company announced a partnership with Marathon County in Wisconsin to convert the county’s landfill emissions into clean RNG, equivalent to over three million gallons of gasoline annually. The firm also recently partnered with Baldwin County in Alabama to develop a waste-to-RNG project at the county’s landfill.
