Renewable Natural Gas (RNG)

Powering The Future with Cleaner Technologies

Renewable natural gas (RNG) is a term used to describe biogas, or bioenergy, that has been upgraded for use in place of fossil natural gas. The biogas used to produce RNG comes from various sources, including:

• Municipal solid waste landfills
• Digesters at water resource recovery facilities (wastewater treatment plants)
• Livestock farms
• Food production facilities
• Organic waste management operations.

The result of this process is clean energy that comes from renewable, zero-emission sources, which will aid in reducing atmospheric pollution.

Envirotech Engineering & Consulting is actively working with the top leaders in the swine and biogas industries within the United States to provide clean energy for future generations.  The swine industry leaders’ forward thinking is taking advantage of the dirtiest part of the industry by turning manures and other organic waste into energy through anaerobic digestion and ultimately into Renewable Natural Gas (RNG).  The RNG generated at these facilities will be used as fuel for vehicles, for heating, or as a catalyst to produce electricity.  Envirotech’s relationship with pork producers having operations in the region, as well as Oklahoma ranking number nine nationally in pork production, provides ample opportunities on multiple levels for technological advancements in the swine industry.

Envirotech is working with its clients and clean energy industries throughout Oklahoma, Texas, and Kansas to design and permit the necessary site-specific infrastructure associated with swine ADLs. These include the associated improvements such as: sizing and grading of in-ground ADLs, manure pumping stations, and interconnecting pipelines necessary to transport the manure and biogas to and from the digesters all while ensuring no disruption from existing farm operations or processes.

Manure to RNG Process

In general, through the process of anaerobic digestion, bacteria consume the manure and organic waste, respiring energy-rich biogas. Compressors or blowers are installed at each anaerobic digester lagoon (ADL) that send the captured biogas from beneath the HDPE synthetic cover to a centralized location on the farm, where the biogas goes through a gas upgrading system to undergo cleaning and purification to pipeline quality standards, generating a natural gas stream that is almost 100% pure methane that is pressurized and injected into an existing natural gas pipeline. The result is a clean RNG being produced while swine farms continue with normal operations.

In addition to design and permitting on the front end of the projects, Envirotech is actively involved in the construction process by providing onsite personnel for construction quality assurance (CQA) of and to ensure the different construction activities are properly followed and documented for the farm and for regulatory purposes.

Envirotech has an outstanding experience, history, and technical background in providing a variety of services for several large swine operations throughout the US.  Envirotech is composed of a multi-disciplined team of engineers, scientists, and technicians with backgrounds in civil, environmental, geotechnical and petroleum engineering, hydrology, geology, hydraulics, water resources, solid waste management, soil/water science, QA/QC and construction materials testing.