The University of California, Riverside’s Center for Renewable Natural Gas has released a study evaluating California’s renewable methane production potential from in-state resources through landfill gas upgrading and anaerobic digestion. The study shows that renewable natural gas from existing resources can play a key role in helping the state achieve its climate and renewable energy goals.
Renewable natural gas is pipeline-quality gas that is fully interchangeable with fossil natural gas. It is produced through the anaerobic digestion of feedstock such as wood, agricultural, and other organic waste matter. Anaerobic digestion occurs when bacteria decompose organic matter in an oxygen-free environment, producing methane gas as a waste product. Anaerobic digestion can be induced in a facility that produces biogas, or naturally in a landfill, from which methane is harvested and converted into a commercially useful form.