Second Food Scraps-to-RNG Project Certified Under California LCFS GREET 3.0
Before January 2021, no food scraps-to-renewable natural gas (RNG) pathways had been certified by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) under CA-GREET 3.0 — the version of the life cycle analysis model used by the agency since 2019 to certify Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) pathways. Then in January, CARB used the rare Design-based pathway process to certify a pathway in the City of Napa, California for Zero Waste Energy (ZWE), as described in a recent BioCycle article.
That certification was noteworthy not only because of the process used, but also because of the ultra-low carbon intensity (CI) of the pathway at -165 gCO2e/MJ. Now CARB has certified a second food scraps-to-RNG pathway, this time for South San Francisco Scavengers (SSFS) located in South San Francisco, California. SSFS operates a ZWE digester system to process food scraps and green waste. The certification, effective on April 1, 2021, was at a CI of -79.91.