The biogas industry saw another record year in 2024, according to the American Biogas Council, which recently held a media briefing to discuss state-of-the industry, progress, potential and policy. Patrick Serfass, executive director of the ABC, led the briefing. The ABC represents all sectors of the biogas industry, from marketers and utilities to equipment retailers and nonprofits, boasting a wide membership of over 400 organizations and 6,000 individual members.Starting from Scratch&nbsp; The potential for biogas-produced energy in the U.S. is huge, according to Serfass, citing 1.4 billion tons of manure, 33 million tons of inedible food waste, and 1 million tons of wastewater biosolids as being sent to U.S. landfills each year, 470 of which are currently flaring their capturable gas. “This is why we exist—to recycle all this material,” he said. “We are not an industry that primarily exists to just make energy. There are lots of other industries that just make energy. Energy is actually a byproduct of what biogas systems do, and it’s where most of the revenue is generated from for these projects.”The energy that Serfass referenced can be produced in several ways, starting with organic materials. Manure, food scraps and restaurant grease can go one of two ways—the landfill, where they will be broken down and converted into biogas-sourced energies like electricity, heat and renewable natural gas (RNG) by microorganisms, or a digester, which can produce materials like fertilizers and animal bedding or be reused as organic material for livestock and other agricultural purposes.&nbsp;“A lot of the biogas systems compost their material after they digest it,” Serfass explains. “So, this is what we’re looking at here ... we’re creating an environment where those microbes can go to work and eat up all the organic material, make biogas, and [when the process is complete], you have the same nutrients that you started with—nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. If it’s not at a landfill and is at a tank digestor, digested material is also produced, which can be used to displace synthetic fertilizers.”Breaking it Down&nbsp; As of 2024, 2,478 biogas capture facilities operate in the U.S., with 566 of those systems converting biogas into RNG and 1,418 producing electricity. Although there are biogas systems in all 50 states, Serfass said, there is still enough organic material available to build an additional 24,000 systems. “So, you can basically consider the U.S. biogas industry about 10% built out.”&nbsp;With broad potential on the horizon, Serfass highlighted the success of the biogas industry in 2025, citing 125 newly live facilities, a 13% year-over-year (y-o-y) increase in biogas output capacity, and a 40% y-o-y increase in investment. “The main change for 2024 is that this is the first year that the farm-based projects or agricultural projects exceed the number of landfill projects,” he said. “And you can see if you look at the one-year growth ... that the growth of landfill systems actually did shrink. We had less growth in landfills in 2024 than we did in 2023, but overall, still a lot of growth.”Biogas finds itself primarily used for power and RNG production, and Serfass noted a 5% increase in RNG production between 2023 and 2024. “Around 2023, we had about 35% of the projects ... producing RNG,” he said. “Now, it’s just over 40%.” Still, the majority of biogas output is used for power production and takes 59% of the pie, with the final 1% representing facilities that flare their biogas. Some of these facilities, Serfass said, were built in the 1920s and still operate today.&nbsp;Of the 125 new facilities built in 2024, 95% were built with RNG goals. “You can see that, clearly, the attention of the industry is focused on building new RNG projects,” Serfass said. “That’s mostly due to the economics of those projects. It’s easier to sell your gas as renewable natural gas than it is as renewable electricity right now.”Capacity for RNG has increased by 170% over the past four years, Serfass said. In 2020, the total annual RNG output capacity reached 59 million MMBtu, with 64% of that capacity coming from landfills, 22% from agriculture, 9% from wastewater and 5% from stand-alone food waste. Total RNG output capacity for 2024 reached 159 million MMBtu, with 67% from landfill, 26% from agriculture, 4% from wastewater and 3% from stand-alone food waste.Driving Forward&nbsp; Following the industry snapshot by Serfass, the briefing transitioned to discuss policies moving the industry forward. Heather Dziedic, ABC vice president of policy, led the conversation. “Organic waste is everywhere,” she said. “This is not an urban rule or red or blue issue. You can see certainly where the density of projects exists across the nation, but also that they do not know political boundaries. And so, this is a really rare bipartisan issue.“So, the way we look at policy around biogas systems is ‘how do we create incentives that build the recycling centers?’...Yes, energy, but also a bunch of other commodities and revenue opportunities,” Dziedic said.Policies that encourage biogas capture grow market demand, support voluntary markets, encourage innovation and manufacturing, and grow supply, Dziedic said. “We focus on growing market demand, so really looking at diverting that waste out of landfills into more fruitful endeavors where we can produce commodities and fertilizers and energy out of that waste,” she said.&nbsp;Dziedic highlighted opportunity in voluntary markets. “We know that corporates and other programs, whether that be driven by supply chains domestically or internationally ... are still committing, absent any policy mandates, to lower carbon products,” she said. “Whether that’s fertilizer or whether that’s energy, we know that voluntary markets are driving a lot of investment in this industry, and so anything we can do to support those voluntary buyers in their endeavor to buy RNG and biogas and other derived fuels is something we’re working on.”Encouraging innovation comes next, Dziedic said. “The biogas systems themselves are capturing gas, but they’re also a great funnel for all of these other manufacturing and commodity production opportunities. And so, how do we encourage that, not only for the revenue stack to get these projects moving, but also for domestic economic growth?&nbsp;“And then finally, how do we grow the supply? How do we grow what is being produced in terms of the actual fuel? That is really on the financial side—how do we give a leg up to the producers out there building these facilities and putting infrastructure and steel in the ground?”Several federal policies are currently influencing the biogas sphere, Dziedic said, including the federal Renewable Fuel Standard and U.S. EPA Tailpipe Emissions Rule—both of which are up in the air under the Trump Administration. Similarly, financial policy has the potential to benefit the biogas industry, but requires revisions. “The ABC looks forward to working with the respective federal organizations to work toward industry-moving tax policy,” Dziedic added. “We have a ton of opportunity with tax credits. Because we touch so many facets of the energy sector, we are really looking to try and preserve and amplify what tax policy can do.”Author: Caitlin Scheresky&nbsp; Junior Staff Writer, Biomass Magazine&nbsp;&nbsp; caitlin.scheresky@bbiinternational.com

2025-04-07 - Biogas on the Rise (Biomass Magazine)

A recent media brief explored the biogas industry’s successes in 2024 and examined policy influencing the future of biogas.

Biogas on the Rise

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