Author: Michael S. Lerner, May 2024
Published in peer-reviewed scientific journal BioFPR at doi.org/10.1002/bbb.2685
- According to the international scientific community, global methane emissions must be cut at least 30% by 2030 to avoid runaway climate change, with more violent wildfires, storms, droughts, glacial melting, sea level rise and health impacts.
- Methane is over 84 times more potent a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, and 155 countries including the U.S. have signed the Global Methane Pledge to cut methane 30% from 2020 levels. We have just a handful of years to meet this major challenge – but how?
- Energy Vision’s May 2024 report Meeting the Methane Challenge documented that the U.S. goal is within reach by focusing on reducing methane emissions from oil and gas, food waste and manure. If the latest EPA regulations on oil and gas production emissions get fully implemented, they would cut methane 17.5% annually by 2030. Compliance means producers would capture and sell methane that currently leaks, so there’s a compelling case for industry support.
- Food waste and manure can bring us the rest of the way. Processing them in ~4,700 airless “anaerobic digester” (AD) tanks would cut U.S. methane 13.6% annually by 2030.
- ADs are proven, cost-effective technology that turn organic wastes from liabilities into assets. Rather than release methane into the atmosphere as these wastes decompose, the methane is captured and used to produce heat and electricity. Or it can be upgraded to renewable natural gas (RNG), a sustainable, drilling-free, low-emission fuel that can displace fossil fuels, including petroleum used in trucks/buses, trains, ships and planes.
- AD projects average 2-6 years to build. The ~700 food waste ADs and ~4,000 dairy and swine manure ADs would involve a total capex of ~$74 billion, predominantly from the private sector. The digesters would annually reduce half of landfill methane emissions (by keeping food waste out of landfills) and 75% of dairy and swine manure methane.
- These ~4,700 ADs would reduce over 12 times the amount of methane than could be achieved by plugging all 2.1 million abandoned oil and gas wells in the U.S., at roughly half the estimated cost. Other methane mitigation measures in the oil and gas sector are more cost effective than building ADs, but all these sources can slash emissions simultaneously.
- ADs can be built across the country, using food waste and manure that will continually be generated locally. Scaling them up would cut methane, reduce waste going to landfills, expand clean energy production and create green jobs. Incentivizing a mass AD buildout is just as important as oil and gas sector steps and should be an urgent priority.
About Energy Vision
Energy Vision is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization which analyzes and promotes the technologies and strategies necessary to shift to a clean, low-carbon future.
In particular, Energy Vision is the leading independent resource on anaerobic digestion of organic waste and the use of renewable natural gas (RNG) to cut methane emissions. We began assessing anaerobic digestion and RNG over 15 years ago, before their commercial debut in the U.S. Today, they are a multibillion-dollar industry across the country.
Energy Vision has:
- Written over a dozen trailblazing reports on clean energy opportunities.
- Been invited to host over 20 workshops nationwide and abroad on the climate benefits of anaerobic digestion.
- Briefed Congress on our flagship report Meeting the Methane Challenge.
- Spoken at many conferences and to a wide range of other audiences, from policymakers to community leaders and concerned citizens.
- Had our op-eds published in major news outlets such as The New York Times, The Hill, and NY Daily News, and been cited in Forbes, BioCycle, Waste360, and others.
- Been invited to advise large municipal entities like the Ports of Seattle and Oakland on major RNG projects with big climate benefits.
- Recognized innovative clean energy projects at our annual Leadership Awards events.
- Energy Vision is supported by foundations, government, the private sector, and individual donors.