Adirondack Farms begins renewable natural gas production

Jul. 5—PERU — Adirondack Farms has taken the leap into a new era of farming by converting dairy manure into renewable natural gas (RNG) through a process called anaerobic digestion.

Up until about 10 months ago, before switching to RNG production, the family-owned dairy farm in Peru was well-known for producing electricity for local consumption instead.

"Making electricity was not financially beneficial for the farm," Jon Rulfs of Adirondack Farms explained at a recent news conference at the farm.

"Our decision to move to renewable natural gas stemmed from that financial side of it. So we, about a month ago, went online with renewable natural gas and we're hoping that's a better move for us, but that's still yet to be determined."

COMPLEX PROCESS

The process of converting dairy manure, a natural producer of the greenhouse gas emission methane, into RNG is complex.

It is made possible through anaerobic digestion and co-digestion systems, which use a series of processes where microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen to capture biogas for energy generation.

Together, these manure management treatment systems can achieve net negative greenhouse gas emissions.

This process also creates a nutrient-rich material called "digestate."

The digestate can be separated even further to provide dry, soft materials used for cow bedding, as well as a natural fertilizer used in the fields to grow feed for the cows, which saves the farm money as they would otherwise need to buy these products from outside sources.

"The bottom line is we hope that through manure digestion, we can be part of the solution for climate change issues that are on the table today," Rulfs said.

"Ag gets a bad rap. Animal ag, especially, gets a bad rap for being part of the problem, and we're here to prove that we can be part of the solution."

That solution will include meeting several key metrics established under New York state's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.

Some of those metrics include reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the state 40% by 2030 and at least 85% from 1990 levels by 2050.

Additionally, the U.S. dairy industry has set a goal to be carbon neutral by 2050.

"Anaerobic digestion is one of many pathways that will be needed to achieve these targets," Cornell University Agricultural Sustainability and Energy Engineering specialist, Lauren Ray, said.

"The common alternatives to using an anaerobic digester include storing raw, liquid manure until field application during the growing season and storing food waste in landfills. Each of these practices result in a release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas ..." she continued.

"So, although manure management in New York state contributes less than 2% of total greenhouse gas emissions, and solid waste management contributes about 5%, because these are methane sources, pulling them out of the atmosphere with such things like anaerobic digesters is really going to have near-term implications for mitigating climate impacts."

CALIFORNIA CONNECTION

Though Adirondack Farms has had a digester since 2017, which has primarily generated electricity, the opportunity to produce RNG was only made possible a couple years ago through California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard.

This means that any RNG that is produced by Adirondack Farms has to be injected into a pipeline connected to California even though it might not get used there, because the farm is technically receiving a credit from that state.

"That's what makes it feasible," Rulfs clarified.

"But we are hopeful that a New York market, maybe Canada, other states ... get on board. California usually leads the way, but we're hopeful, we're optimistic that California isn't the only market; that we have a local market (eventually)."

Naturally, with any advancements like this, an important part of its long-term success is research.

In 2022, Ray and Cornell CALS PRO-DAIRY Agricultural Engineer Peter E. Wright applied a small grant from the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program (NNYADP) to develop two case studies for a project that evaluated information on regional food waste sources, landfill tipping fees and data from Clarkson University research on micro-anaerobic co-digestion as well as system needs and cost.

The studies found that co-digestion systems are economically feasible and a good investment when taking into consideration the 30% federal investment tax credit through the Inflation Reduction Act and the ability to sell RNG to a third party.

In addition to these findings, researchers discovered that the electricity generation and revenue continue to be a challenge in New York due to low export value and extreme grid capacity limitations, which could lead to future, substantial upgrade costs for co-digestion systems.

However, the study has drawn attention from farmers throughout the state, which has leveraged additional funding to evaluate opportunities for smaller farms and further research into types of food waste sources and other economic variables.

FARMING INNOVATION

Assemblyman Billy Jones (D-Chateaugay Lake), a former dairy farmer himself, is a strong supporter of the farmer-driven NNYADP and has helped secure over $1.5 million in state funding for the organization since 2019.

"Many do not realize that innovative agricultural research is happening right here in the North Country," Jones said.

"As dairy farmers across the country continue to face challenges, the Northern New York Agricultural Development Program's projects provide vital data and insights to help our local agricultural industry not only adapt the most recent green technologies, but also be a leader in groundbreaking research. I am proud to have repeatedly secured funding for this program so that they can continue to lead the way in developing agricultural technology and methodology throughout the state."

NNYADP co-chair Joseph Giroux also praised the program's efforts in helping North Country farms.

"Farming has changed so much even in the past five years that you cannot even imagine," Giroux said.

"Northern New York Agricultural Development Program allows our region to be competitive with the rest of the state and nation and provides an opportunity to show ourselves what we have done the last 40 years since the program started. From tile drainage to water quality to the air we breathe- our projects do not just benefit local farmers but is a great benefit for the North Country."

The next steps for Adirondack Farms now involves adhering to New York State's Food Donation and Food Scrap Recycling Law which went online last year.

The law requires food waste producers of more than 2 tons a week to divert that waste from landfills if there are accepted options within 25 miles for fees not exceeding 10% above the landfill tipping rate.

"More and more we're going to see a push to get that food waste into facilities that can accept it, and that would include anaerobic digesters. So I think dairy farms are really kind of well suited for that opportunity because they already are doing things like applying the manure to the land for fertilizer, and when you add in food waste, now you've got some additional nutrients that you can hopefully use as fertilizer," Ray said.

"So I think farms should ... continue to kind of look at the economics of having this type of system, which again, you know, food waste acceptance can bring in a lot of revenue, but it might be difficult to manage as time goes on."

Email: cnewton@pressrepublican.com

Twitter: CarlySNewton