With the announcement, the Brightmark RNG Holdings LLC joint venture now owns and operates 15 RNG projects in the Midwest, a region that generates nearly 43 percent of the nation’s agricultural products. This milestone makes Brightmark one of the leading dairy RNG providers in the United States. To date, the company has reduced emissions by more than 1.2 million tons of CO?eq through its RNG circularity centers, equivalent to the amount of carbon sequestered by planting and growing nearly 20 million trees for 10 years.
“We’re extremely excited to see these projects come online and begin reducing methane emissions while driving economic development in local communities,” said Bob Powell, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Brightmark. “This milestone demonstrates the scalability of these solutions and determination from farmers to reduce methane emissions in one of the nation’s largest agricultural regions.”
Brightmark’s process for reducing methane emissions involves collaborating with farmers to produce RNG through anaerobic digestion. This process collects organic waste, digests it to extract methane, and upgrades it into RNG for use as transportation fuel.
“Delivering first gas at 10 farms is a significant milestone,” said Nuray Elci, Vice President, Renewables, Chevron. “Transitioning to a lower carbon intensity energy economy demands, among other things, ambitious goals, innovation, and practical solutions. This success highlights renewable natural gas’s potential and fosters new opportunities for transport, industry, and consumers.”
“We’re thrilled to implement these innovations on our farm,” said Jeremy VanEss of VanEss and Legacy Dairies. “Lower carbon is important to us, and it’s exciting to see this technology become operational and help put our organic waste to use while striving to reduce our carbon footprint.”
“Implementing anaerobic digestion at our farm is not only environmentally sound but also economically beneficial,” said Lynn Boadwine of Boadwine Dairy Inc. “Additional revenue generated from the RNG we produce provides a viable and economic solution to address recurring waste and makes the transition toward a lower carbon intensity agriculture more attainable. It’s a win-win.”
