The new technology captures methane emissions and converts them into carbon-negative renewable natural gas (RNG) to power homes, vehicles and businesses
Monarch Bioenergy, a joint venture between Smithfield Foods and Roeslein Alternative Energy (RAE), has finished installing manure-to-energy technology on nearly all of Smithfield’s Northern Missouri hog finishing farms.
The new technology captures methane emissions and converts them into carbon-negative renewable natural gas (RNG) to power homes, vehicles and businesses.
Kraig Westerbeek, VP, Smithfield Renewables for Smithfield Foods, said “Our Monarch Bioenergy manure-to-energy projects are making a significant environmental impact and remove 25 times more emissions from the atmosphere than are emitted during the clean energy’s end-use. Because of this, they are key projects in our Smithfield Renewables portfolio of innovative renewable energy and carbon reduction efforts across our operations.”
Construction of the approximately $150 million project officially began in 2014, three years after RAE and Smithfield first had the idea to embark on the joint venture. The proprietary processes that emerged from the project create carbon-negative RNG at a rate of approximately 800,000 dekatherms annually.
In addition to generating renewable energy, the partnership has planted hundreds of acres of prairie grass, providing ecological services and wildlife habitat for monarch butterflies across the state. The companies are also exploring harvesting prairie plants to create biomass for RNG production.
The Monarch Bioenergy joint venture supports the companies’ respective sustainability goals, including RAE’s goal to restore 30 million acres of land to native prairie plants strategically located around waterways, streams, rivers and highly erodible lands and Smithfield’s industry-leading goals to become carbon negative in the US company-owned operations and reduce GHG emissions 30 per cent across its entire US value chain by 2030.
