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

    15-MW Landfill Gas-to-RNG Plant Begins Commercial Operations in Illinois

    Dec. 9, 2024
    Ameresco and Republic Services say the LGF-to-RNG site will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 82,000 metric tons annually.
    Roxana LFG-RNG facility image credit Business Wire
    675752596ac1a117c82a6985 Roxana Facility Aerial Image

    Project developer Ameresco and Republic Services are celebrating the start of commercial operations at a 15.6-MW landfill gas-to-renewable natural gas conversion facility in Illinois.

    The joint venture is located at Republic Services’ Roxana Landfill site in Edwardsville. The facility captures naturally occurring landfill gas and processes it into pipeline-quality RNG, which reduces methane emissions at the landfill and creates a lower-carbon fuel resource into the gas transmission system.

    Ameresco and Republic Services say the LGF-to-RNG site will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 82,000 metric tons annually. The Roxana plant is the 14th project collaboration between the two companies, but the first time they created a joint venture co-investment in a new, renewable energy project.

    Annual production facility is estimated to total 1.4 dekatherms. 

    “Today’s announcement marks a momentous occasion in Ameresco’s 22-year partnership with Republic Services,” said Michael Bakas, president of Renewable Fuels at Ameresco, in a statement. “Republic Services and Ameresco have similar visions to create a more sustainable world. This project does just that as part of the circular economy turning waste into a reliable source of renewable energy that has a tremendous impact on our environment.”

    The RNG will be delivered to displace traditional fossil natural gas at a nearby Energy Transfer transmission pipeline. Raw methane which can leak from landfills is calculated to have multiple times more negative impact as a greenhouse gas than CO2 emitted from combustion, according to reports.

    Renewable natural gas is currently less than 1% of the North American natural gas market, according to researchers Wood Mackenzie, but that production capacity could increase ten-fold by 2050. Other companies exploring landfill gas-to-RNG projects include NextEra Energy Resources, Puget Sound Energy, Vision RNG, Archaea and more.

    Landfills currently account for close to 70% of RNG feedstock by volume, while agricultural waste is close to 20%, according to the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas.

    With the Roxana landfill project, the planners say that the 82,000 metric tons of removed CO2 is equivalent to the emissions of 5,000 passenger cars.

    The facility can process close to 6,000 cubic feet of raw landfill gas per minute, according to Ameresco and Republic Services.

    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.