Biomethane from New York’s dairy manure and food waste could fuel over 30,000 tractor trailers annually, displacing at least 300 million gallons of diesel.*
12 percent of the NY dairy herd has implemented manure anaerobic digestion (AD) to biomethane. This energy (with its GHG reduction) has market value under California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard. But it could be meeting New York’s needs instead.
- Bioenergy is necessary to reach NY climate targets and is part of moving to a circular bioeconomy where organic resources are best utilized.
- Manure and food waste anaerobic digestion (AD) are complementary in that they produce energy and recover valuable nutrients to enhance NY’s soil health and fertility.
- Current management practices of livestock manure and landfilling organics are responsible for over 25 percent of NY’s anthropogenic methane emissions.
- Smartly designed and maintained bioenergy systems capture this methane and put it to productive use as a flexible and non-fossil fuel energy resource.
- This industry requires distributed job creation in rural, populated, and disadvantaged communities, including local construction trades, operation and maintenance personnel, and engineers.
- Bioenergy technology is already commercially available at many scales, and enhanced energy recovery processes are being innovated. The potential value of our organic resources, a necessary part of our food and agriculture system, will only grow over time.
*Estimated using typical AD systems processing manure from 72 percent of the current statewide dairy herd and conservative food waste volumes. Assumes 10,000 gallons diesel used per tractor trailer per year.
