Montauk receives boost for fuel use in California

Pittsburgh-based Montauk Renewables Inc. has received provisional approval from the California Air Resource Board (CARB) regarding the Carbon Intensity Score (CI Score) of fuel produced at the Pico Energy anaerobic digestion (AD) site in Idaho.

The company says it sought provisional certification of a Tier 2 pathway for the biomethane (bio-compressed natural gas, or bio-CNG) produced in Idaho via the AD treatment of dairy cow manure.

Montauk’s Pico Energy LLC subsidiary owns and operates the facility, which has been designed to upgrade biogas to biomethane. The biomethane then is injected into a pipeline onsite to be supplied to CNG vehicles in California as bio-CNG.

According to Montauk, the bio-CNG’s approved provisional CI Score is -260.56. “This certified CI value will be used to report and generate Low Carbon Fuel Standards credits (LCFS Credits) for fuel quantities from the Pico Energy facility starting [retroactively] with the fourth quarter of 2022,” the company says.

Montauk Renewables converts methane generated at landfills and agribusiness sites into either renewable natural gas (RNG) or electrical power for the electrical grid. The company has 15 operating projects in California, Idaho, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, North Carolina and Texas.