Smithfield Foods to build biogas systems in Missouri, Utah
Smithfield Foods has announced the construction of new biogas capture systems in Missouri and Utah, which bring the company closer to delivering renewable natural gas (RNG) to communities in multiple states using manure from its hog farms.
Smithfield Foods has announced the construction of new biogas capture systems in Missouri and Utah, which bring the company closer to delivering renewable natural gas (RNG) to communities in multiple states using manure from its hog farms. Smithfield’s “manure-to-energy” projects are part of Smithfield Renewables, the company’s platform that unifies and accelerates its renewable energy efforts to help meet its goal to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 25% by 2025.
In Missouri, construction is in progress to connect Smithfield farms equipped with covered lagoons to a biogas gathering system. This will build upon the company’s joint venture with Roeslein Alternative Energy (RAE) called Monarch Bioenergy, which converts manure collected from Smithfield farms into RNG, while simultaneously delivering ecological services and developing wildlife habitat in Missouri. Once complete, these projects will produce enough RNG to power approximately 15,400 homes.
Similar progress is happening in Utah, where construction is underway on a low-pressure biogas transmission line that will connect “manure-to-energy” projects on Smithfield’s hog farms to an interstate biogas gathering system. The interstate system includes touchpoints in California, Nevada, Utah, and Wyoming, transporting gas to viable renewable energy markets to power homes, businesses, and transportation vehicles.
This construction is the next phase of the company’s investment to build 26 hog farms in Utah equipped with renewable energy technology. The covered, mixed digesters, specifically designed for anaerobic digestion, will produce and collect biogas, which will be pumped into a low-pressure biogas transmission line for transport to a gas-upgrading station, where it will be refined and injected into the interstate biogas gathering system. These farms will also provide financial benefit to local family farmers who will own and operate the properties. Once operational, the project will create enough RNG to power 4,000 homes each year.
Within the next 10 years, Smithfield will implement “manure-to-energy” projects across 90% of the company’s hog finishing spaces in North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia, and nearly all of Smithfield’s hog finishing spaces in Missouri.