2022 biogas industry award recipients announced at BIOGAS AMERICAS

May 26, 2022. More than 1,000 biogas industry leaders gathered this week at the annual BIOGAS AMERICAS conference, where the American Biogas Council (ABC) announced its 2022 Biogas Industry Award recipients. Leading the way were two initiatives celebrated as Project of the Year, the CalBio Bloom Dairy Biogas Fuel Cell project in Fresno, Calif., and the Fremont Regional Digester project in Fremont, Mich. The Biogas Innovation of the Year was awarded to the NanoGateTM Biogas Upgrading PSA from Guild Associates, Inc. of Dublin, Ohio; the 2022 Biogas Visionary Award was given to Rudi Roeslein of Roeslein Alternative Energy; and the 2022 Friend of the ABC Award was given to Sam Wade of the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas.

“It is an honor to recognize these remarkable award recipients,” said Patrick Serfass, executive director of ABC. Each one of them, whether it is an industry stalwart like Rudi Roeslein or either of our two Project of the Year winners, is a shining example of the innovative spirit that is powering the massive growth of biogas in America and globally, as well as the commitment to solving complex energy and environmental challenges with sustainable solutions that benefit us all.”

The Project of the Year awardees represent the dairy and food waste sectors of the biogas industry and were recognized for their innovation and growth. The dairy biogas-to-fuel cell project by CalBio and Bloom Energy was honored for breaking new ground in the U.S. biogas industry and the world as the first to use renewable biogas to make electricity from fuel cells to power an onsite microgrid and a fleet of electric vehicles. The project’s renewable electricity powers the dairy farm’s microgrid as well as a portion of BMW’s electric vehicle fleet in California. As a result, it brings together, California’s Silicon Valley and Central Valley to deliver a novel new clean, reliable and efficient biogas power system mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and fueling the future.

The Fremont Regional Digester was recognized for the remarkable turnaround performance led by its owner Generate Capital, and its return to full-scale, continuous operation as one of the largest food waste biogas systems in the U.S. The digester recycles 150,000 tons per year of consumer, agriculture, and food waste into 19 GWh per year of electricity and millions of gallons of digestate stored in covered lagoons to replace chemical fertilizers on 1,000 acres of farmland and control odor. The project employs 17 local residents full time, and serves more than 50 unique food waste generators every month, including several well-known multi-nationals in the food industry.

The NanoGateTM Biogas Upgrading PSA from Guild Associates, Inc. was bestowed the distinction of American Biogas Council 2022 Innovation of the Year for its ability to economically scale down the production of RNG from biogas. At a flow as low as 15 SCFM, this technology allows RNG to be produced on smaller farms, water resource recovery facilities, and food waste digesters where economical RNG production was previously much less feasible. The cost of most other competing technologies is often too high for smaller biogas projects, so this technology has the potential to help thousands of new projects get built to recycle their organic waste into renewable energy in the form of renewable natural gas.

Rudi Roeslein was honored as a Biogas Visionary for his unparalleled commitment to grow the U.S. biogas industry, transform the sustainability of swine operations, capture carbon emissions, and recycle nutrients in a way that provides additional ecological services which support future advances in biogas. His work has changed the biogas industry forever, catalyzed hundreds of millions of dollars in new investments beyond his ample personal contributions and demonstrated the feasibility of restoring millions of acres of native prairie grasses for soil health and critical habitats for wildlife and pollinators while building new biogas systems.

Sam Wade was recognized as a Friend of the ABC for his tireless advocacy and collaborative spirit focused on achieving clean air and climate goals through the improvement of public policy, and the development of biogas and renewable natural gas systems. With Sam’s dedication, the biogas and RNG industry has experienced accelerated growth and is positioned to make the greatest contributions to renewable energy and environmental protection it ever has.