December 11, 2020. Fortistar and the New River Solid Waste Association (NRSWA) in Raiford, Florida, announced the construction of a facility that will capture and convert approximately 1,900 dekatherms per day of landfill methane to renewable natural gas (RNG), which is enough to offset emissions from 7,500 passenger cars.
“As an investment firm that’s focused on implementing more decarbonization solutions across the country, funding and supporting this renewable energy project in Florida was an easy decision,” said Mark Comora, President of Fortistar. “Creating fuel for transportation is a solution available today to significantly decrease human-related greenhouse gas emissions. NRSWA maintains an excellent reputation in waste management in Florida and we’re looking forward to working with them to capture greenhouse gases, displace diesel trucks and produce cleaner fuel for a more sustainable future.”
The project, formally known as the New River RNG Project, will collect naturally occurring methane from the NRSWA municipal solid waste landfill, convert it to RNG and use it to fuel natural gas vehicles via TruStar Energy, a Fortistar portfolio company. At full output, the New River facility will extract 2,500 standard cubic feet per minute of landfill gas and produce 5.1 million gas gallon equivalents (GGE) of RNG per year. The overall project reduces emissions by 35,000 tons of CO2e per year. SCS Engineers, a California-based environmental consulting and construction firm, will build the facility under an engineering, procure and construction (EPC) contract, which will create approximately 35 to 40 construction jobs.
Perry Kent, Executive Director, New River Solid Waste Association said, “NRSWA is excited about partnering with Fortistar on this important and industry leading project. This will be the first project to convert gas from a municipal solid waste landfill to RNG in Florida and we are happy we are able to lead the way. New River has always worked to manage solid waste in a sustainable way and this project is one more step toward New River becoming a fully sustainable solid waste treatment facility.”