Aemetis Biogas Services, a subsidiary of Aemetis Inc., a renewable fuels company focused on negative carbon intensity products, has signed a six-year supply agreement with Trillium to provide an estimated 600,000 MMBtu of renewable natural gas (RNG) to be used as transportation fuel in California.
The RNG replaces up to the equivalent of 4.3 million gallons of diesel fuel.
“Trillium’s mission is to help customers meet their ESG goals, and providing RNG is a big part of that,” says Ryan Erickson, vice president of Trillium. “We’re excited to partner with Aemetis to use biogas to get drivers back on the road quickly and safely.”
Aemetis completed Phase 1 of the Central Dairy Digester network in 2020 with two fully operational digesters and four miles of pipeline. The biogas from Phase 1 has been used as process energy at the Aemetis Keyes biorefinery to reduce the facility’s dependency on petroleum-based natural gas and to decrease the carbon intensity (CI) of fuel ethanol produced.
Phase 2 of the network consists of a centralized biogas upgrading facility, a utility gas pipeline interconnection unit, 10 dairy digesters and 32 miles of additional pipeline which are planned to be completed by Q4 2022. Aemetis plans to have more than 60 digesters built and operating by the end of 2026 which are designed to produce approximately 1.6 million MMBtu of RNG per year, displacing approximately 12.5 million gallons of diesel per year.
Aemetis has completed construction and is currently commissioning the centralized gas cleanup facility and utility gas interconnect located at the Keyes Ethanol biorefinery where dairy biogas will be upgraded to RNG and injected into the utility pipeline through an interconnection with Pacific Gas and Electric. Upon receiving pathway certification from the California Air Resources Board (CARB), the fuel is scheduled to begin deliveries to Trillium in late 2022.
“We are excited to announce our initial RNG supply agreement with Trillium, one of the largest distributors of RNG vehicle fuel in the United States,” says Andy Foster, president of Aemetis Biogas. “As a member of the Love’s Family of Companies, Trillium has a long and respected history of providing valuable products to the transportation sector. We are pleased to supply our below zero carbon intensity RNG fuel to Trillium’s extensive network of fueling facilities across California and look forward to a long-term relationship with this innovative, industry-leading company.”
