Anew Predecessor Element Markets Announces Role as Renewable Natural Gas Marketer for Anaergia’s Newly Commissioned Wastewater and Food Waste Facility

HOUSTON, TX: Element Markets Renewable Energy (EMRE) announced today that it was selected to be the RNG offtake partner for Anaergia subsidiary SoCal Biomethane’s wastewater and food waste anaerobic digestion facility in Victor Valley. As outlined in a January 21, 2022 press release, the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority facility was recently retrofit with Anaergia’s high through-put, high-efficiency anaerobic digester technologies, making it the first in California able to accept food waste from the region’s waste haulers in addition to municipal wastewater solids and inject RNG into the regional gas utility pipeline. The facility is expected to convert the region’s organic waste to pipeline-quality, carbon-negative RNG at a volume of up to 320,000 MMBTUs of RNG per year and will help California meet its organic waste and methane emission reduction goals under Senate Bill 1383. As Anaergia’s offtake partner, EMRE will be responsible for the marketing and sale of the RNG from the Victor Valley project into California markets. EMRE is also the exclusive RNG marketer for Anaergia’s Rialto Bioenergy Facility, one of North America’s largest diverted organic waste landfill and RNG facilities.

“We congratulate Anaergia on this innovative, large-scale project demonstrating the climate benefit of renewable natural gas. Not only will this project reduce harmful emissions by capturing and repurposing methane, the RNG produced by this facility will be a carbon-negative, drop-in replacement for fossil-derived gas. We are excited to continue our work together to enable California companies to meet the requirements of SB 1383 and bring more climate-focused solutions to the state,” remarked Angela Schwarz, CEO and Co-President of Element Markets.

“Anaergia is leading the development of renewable natural gas infrastructure that leverages capacity at existing municipal wastewater treatment facilities, and this project is the first in California to co-digest both food waste and wastewater sludge to create pipeline-quality RNG,” said Yaniv Scherson, Chief Operating Officer of Anaergia. “We work with Element Markets as our gas marketing partner because they offer the market expertise to maximize the impact and value of this carbon-negative fuel.”

According to Natural Gas Vehicles for America and the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas, California fleets fueled by RNG achieved carbon-negativity for calendar year 2020 and displaced 1.83 million tons of CO2 equivalent, equal to removing the greenhouse gases from nearly 4.6 billion passenger car miles. In addition, utilities, as well as commercial and industrial organizations are increasingly seeking to leverage RNG to help decrease Scope 1 emissions.