Maximizing Revenue from Farm RNG: Continuous Monitoring to Keep Your Product in the Pipe
Author: Ben Montgomery, Jarett Henry
TL;DR
Farm Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) offers significant revenue streams, with price premiums driven by federal and state incentives, especially for methane captured from livestock manure.
Studies reveal average leak rates of 2.5-5% from anaerobic digesters at biogas facilities, representing avoidable revenue loss. Qube’s continuous monitoring solution helps prevent leaks, ensuring more gas in the pipeline and maximizing RNG profitability.
Qube’s platform offers real-time leak detection, efficient alerting, and odor management, enabling RNG operators to maximize revenue, enhance safety, and reduce emissions.
Field deployments have led to several important learnings: monthly emissions vary widely across sites and within the same site over time, and leaks are extremely difficult to spot with manual inspections.
The value of continuous monitoring is demonstrated by a recent case study, where Qube detected a major leak overnight and instantly alerted the operators. This saved ~$200k in weekly revenue loss by enabling immediate repair.
Methane – a potent greenhouse gas roughly 80 times more impactful than carbon dioxide (CO2) over 20 years – is a significant component of agricultural emissions (1). In the U.S., agriculture is a significant methane contributor, primarily from enteric fermentation in ruminant animals (like cows) and manure management (2). Farm Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) – also known as biomethane – is produced by anaerobic digestion of livestock manure and agricultural waste. This clean energy source is not only environmentally beneficial but also highly lucrative for farmers leveraging state and federal incentive programs.
Environmental and Climate Benefits of RNG
Methane Capture: RNG prevents methane from escaping into the atmosphere under traditional farming practices by using an anaerobic digester to convert manure and agricultural waste into biogas, which is then upgraded to RNG.
Renewable Energy: It provides a renewable fuel source that displaces traditional fossil fuels, offering both climate benefits and financial returns.
Business Case for Farm RNG
Farm RNG can be highly profitable, driven by federal and state-based incentive programs that create a significant price premium relative to conventional natural gas:
Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS): Implemented in California and other states, a key feature of LCFS programs is the ability for each project to earn credits based on its “carbon intensity” (CI) score. This score includes a calculation for “avoided methane”. Because traditional farming practices would not lead to any of the potential methane being captured, farm RNG receives the lowest CI score out of any feedstock source (and the highest number of credits as a result).
Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS): This federal program classifies renewable fuel sources into five broad categories based on feedstock. RNG from manure falls under the “D3 – cellulosic biofuel” category, with credit prices ~3x higher than other RFS categories.
By stacking LCFS and RFS credits, farm RNG operators can currently achieve prices around $65/MMBtu – nearly 25x the wholesale price of conventional natural gas (3, 4).
Emission Rates from Anaerobic Digesters
Academic studies across 33 farm-based biogas sites reveal average leak rates ranging from 2.4% (5) to 4.8% (6) of total biogas production. It’s important to note that these studies were based on upright standing digesters (otherwise known as “complete mix” or “continuous stirred tank reactor”), which are considered to have even lower leakage than covered lagoons. For example, the California LCFS CI calculator assumes a 2% leak rate for CSTR digesters and 5% for covered lagoons.
Qube’s Continuous Monitoring Platform: Key Benefits
Maximize Revenue by Minimizing Leaks: Qube’s sensors detect and localize leaks in real-time, ensuring more RNG stays in the pipeline.
Improved Operational Efficiency: Automated alerts provide suspected leak locations and estimated emission rates, eliminating the need for time-consuming manual inspections.
Enhanced Odor and Air Quality Management: In addition to detecting methane, Qube monitors air quality by identifying gases like H₂S and NH₃, enhancing site safety and reducing odor complaints.
Learnings From Real-World Deployments
Emissions vary widely across sites: When looking at average monthly emissions from a comparable sample of 19 covered lagoons, the difference between the highest and lowest emitting site is over 30x! This wide range of leakage holds true even when holding variables such as operator, lagoon size, and region constant.
Emissions also vary widely at single sites: Even at sites with low average monthly emissions, unexpected leak events can still occur. Using the same set of lagoons noted above to compare average monthly emissions with their highest monthly rate, we found that all but three sites had a month with ~2-5x their average emissions!
Leaks are difficult to spot manually: While every operator has different leak detection practices, we’ve heard that typical leaks coming from small holes or imperfect welds are unlikely to be detected by intermittent manual inspections. Additionally, these manual inspections are extremely time consuming for onsite personnel.
Case Study: Real-time Detection Saves $200k in Revenue
Qube partnered with Roeslein Alternative Energy to deploy devices around the perimeter of covered lagoons at several swine farms. This pilot highlighted the unpredictable and intermittent nature of leaks mentioned above, as ~55% of measured emissions came from just 5% of leaks.
At one site, an overnight storm with ~15mph winds created a three-inch tear in the lagoon cover. Qube’s platform detected the leak and sent an automated alert with the estimated location and emission rate (Fig. 1). Onsite operators used this information to verify and repair the tear the next day, preventing a potential revenue loss of ~$200k in lost revenue in just one week!
Figure 1. Qube dashboard showing detected leak and impact of repair from a tear in the lagoon cover.
For more details on this incident and learnings from the pilot, check out the full case study here.
Qube Technologies’ continuous monitoring solution provides a robust, continuous monitoring solution to support RNG operators maximize revenue, reduce emissions, and enhance operational efficiency.
Ready to maximize the value of your RNG operations? Contact Qube today.