U.S. Gain has completed a gas processing facility at Clover Hill Dairy in Campbellsport, Wis., that will enable the production of renewable natural gas (RNG) for transportation fuel and other uses.
“Many of the large farms already have digesters, and we work with them to offtake and distribute the RNG produced,” says Bryan Nudelbacher, U.S. Gain’s director of RNG business development. “But the Clover Hill project goes one step beyond that. Now, we’re also actively leading development of gas processing facilities and coordinating transportation of pipeline-grade gas to injection sites, drawing on skillsets from industry experts, as appropriate.”
U.S. Gain worked with Nacelle Solutions, a technology and service company specializing in gas conditioning and upgrading, and CMD CNG Energy Solutions, along with the Bonlender family on the Clover Hill project.
Nacelle will own, operate and maintain the equipment, which includes advanced natural gas compression technology, a centralized site controller and site support from CMD. The Clover Hill site is the first in a series of four Nacelle Wisconsin RNG farm projects involving CMD as an equipment and service vendor. The remaining three are scheduled to be operational within the next few months.
CMD says the centralized site controller is a unique feature of the Clover Hill project.
“The site controller connects the discreet components of the facility and provides centralized control, as well as consistent collection of metrics that are important for reporting to the EPA for the RIN program, and to verify that the gas is of pipeline quality,” explains Brad Schmoll, CMD CNG business development manager. “The intuitive HMI color touch screen also provides productivity and output data and has built-in alerts for any component or system issues.”
The net result for the dairy includes various benefits, dairy owner Joe Bonlender says.
“By replacing our generators with the RNG system, our farm will see many added environmental benefits, such as less noise pollution from generators, cleaner air and less odor,” Bonlender remarks. “Our business will also see an added income stream. Our family feels this partnership with U.S. Gain is a great opportunity for our farm and our greater community.”
“As for the RNG produced, it’s of value to fleets on the West Coast, particularly Southern California, where air quality is a tremendous concern,” Nudelbacher adds. “Fleets that use RNG within their operations are able to claim transportation-emission reductions, strengthening sustainability performance, and also share in the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) environmental credit value.”
U.S. Gain specializes in developing renewable natural gas projects and building and operating private and public GAIN Clean Fuel stations.
Photo: An aerial shot of the Clover Hill Dairy farm
