Divert's renewable energy facility opens in California

Divert Inc., a Massachusetts-based food diversion company, has announced its facility in Turlock, California, is now processing unsold food products into carbon-negative renewable energy, which is being injected into PG&E’s natural gas transmission line in a first-of-its-kind interconnection to address wasted food.

The company says its Turlock Integrated Diversion & Energy Facility will be able to process 100,000 tons of unsold food products a year. Nearly 225,000 MMBtu (million British thermal units) of renewable natural gas (RNG) will be delivered into PG&E’s system. Divert’s facility will also mitigate approximately 23,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions annually, the company says, equivalent to removing approximately 5,000 gas-powered cars from the road.

“This is a remarkable clean energy milestone that reflects the hard work, dedication and world-class talent of every individual who has contributed to bringing this project to life,” says Ryan Begin, CEO and cofounder of Divert. “Together with PG&E, we are providing carbon-negative renewable energy to Californians, bringing the state one step closer to achieving its climate and clean energy goals. The Turlock facility represents a significant step forward in addressing the dual environmental and social crises of wasted food, and underscores Divert’s leadership in scaling sustainable infrastructure solutions for the energy sector.”

RELATED: From the ground up: Through a network of organics processing infrastructure, Divert Inc. helps food retailers achieve sustainability goals and prevent wasted food.

“The RNG [renewable natural gas] market was really important to the business,” Begin tells Waste Today. “It used to be that electricity was the only market, but it’s inefficient. A generator runs at like 30 percent efficiency and it’s really expensive to operate. … [With] RNG, we can clean up that biogas, remove the carbon dioxide and now you’re capturing 99 percent of the energy.”

More than 63 million tons of food are wasted in the U.S. each year, a crisis that contributes significantly to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions—nearly 14 percent, according to Divert. California alone discards six million tons of food annually. Divert has stated a commitment to address the wasted food crisis in California, providing businesses with data analytics and insights to waste less and donate more food.

Leveraging its proprietary anaerobic digestion solution, Divert is taking unsold food that would otherwise be emitting methane in a landfill and transforming it into a beneficial and carbon-negative byproduct. In doing so, Divert is bringing California closer to reaching its net-zero carbon pollution goals.

“Today marks another exciting first for PG&E and our customers and highlights our commitment to supporting the advancement of diverse renewable natural gas resources produced locally in California,” says Austin Hastings, vice president of PG&E Gas Engineering. “By accepting renewable natural gas made from unsold food products into our pipeline system, we’re contributing to a more sustainable California and advancing toward our goal of a net-zero energy system by 2040. It’s a win for our customers, our state and our climate goals.”

Begin says Divert has 12 projects currently in permitting through delivery phase across the U.S.

“We are spending the money to develop all of those projects so that we can deliver three or four projects per year,” Begin says, with those in-progress projects expected to be operational by 2030.

Divert’s facility in Turlock is slated to be fully operational in Q4 2024, and a ribbon-cutting will be held on Dec. 4, 2024.