Ameresco LFG-to-RNG plant starts operations at Republic landfill

Ameresco Inc., a cleantech integrator specializing in energy efficiency and renewable energy, has achieved commercial operation at its landfill gas (LFG) to renewable natural gas plant at Republic Services’ Benson Valley Landfill in Frankfort, Kentucky.

The Benson Valley facility has a nameplate capacity in excess of 483,552 dekatherms per year and is capable of processing 2,000 standard cubic feet per minute of raw LFG.

Ameresco broke ground on the project in June 2022 and reached commercial operation this August. As a result of the long-term partnership, Benson Valley Landfill will reduce 27,440 tons of carbon dioxide emissions per year, a figure that is roughly equivalent to the carbon sequestered by planting 325,899 acres of forests or 31 million gallons of gasoline not being combusted.

“At Republic Services, our vision is to partner with customers to create a more sustainable world now and for future generations,” Republic Services Area President Larson Richardson says. “Our long-standing partnership with Ameresco enables us to capture naturally occurring gas created by decomposing waste in our landfill and convert that gas into a low-carbon fuel source that reduces greenhouse gas emissions. The Benson Valley RNG [renewable natural gas] facility is just another example of us living our values; we are sustainability in action.”

Photo courtesy of Ameresco

In a news release announcing the project’s completion, Ameresco says the facility will ensure clean energy resources are available for the regional economy and will significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions within the environment. These benefits directly contribute to Republic Services’ long-term sustainability goal to beneficially reuse 50 percent more of their biogas by 2030, the company adds.

This is Ameresco’s 11^th biogas project with Republic Services since it began working with the Phoenix-based waste management firm in 2004. The companies are currently working on another 11 projects, which are in various stages of development, permitting or construction.

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Ameresco was formed in 2000 and was an early developer of LFG-to-RNG technologies. Michael Bakas, executive vice president of Ameresco, tells Waste Today that “within the first 12 months of starting the company, we identified landfill gas as a fuel source that we were interested in developing projects for.”

With greater interest in renewable energy, Bakas says the biogas industry has “really taken off” and serves as a primary driver for cost savings and sustainability within energy markets.

“Resiliency has become a huge trend in the energy space; it’s gaining momentum,” he says. “It’s all about resiliency and being able to withstand … multi-day outages. So, historically to do that you need a historical fossil fuel, whether it’s diesel generators or natural gas-fired co-generation plants, but that isn’t green. [However], RNG is a baseload dispatchable green energy resource that can be used in lieu of natural gas.”

Bakas commends Republic Services for its work in the waste-to-energy space, noting that its various RNG projects are helping to establish the company as a leader in the environmental services industry.

By bringing together waste firms and renewable energy integrators, Bakas says it creates a “best-in-class team that has deep expertise from the wellhead all the way to the burner tip.”

He adds, “[With] a project like this Benson RNG facility, you’ve got partners that candidly have a lot of great competencies from the very beginning of the food chain to the very end.”

Republic also has partnered with renewable energy company Archaea Energy, which was acquired by BP in 2022, for LFG-to-RNG projects at its landfills. This includes a facility at the company’s Middle Point Landfill in Murfreesboro, Tennesee, and another at its South Shelby Landfill in Memphis, Tennessee.

“Achieving nationwide carbon neutrality necessitates the collective contributions of a diversified portfolio of technologies; there is no singular solution,” Bakas says. “Republic Services has made such a commitment, and we at Ameresco are profoundly fortunate to embark on this sustainability journey alongside them. Our collaboration harnesses advanced technologies to convert a byproduct of human activity into dependable and dispatchable renewable energy.”

Editor's Note: This article was updated Oct. 24 to include comments from Michael Bakas of Ameresco.