DTE Vantage turns farm waste into RNG in South Dakota

By DTE Vantage | November 10, 2022

Methane from dairy cow manure will become sustainable renewable natural gas at a new Beresford, South Dakota facility that recently began operations. DTE Vantage announced Nov. 2 that its partnership with two local farms will make a sizable, positive environmental impact, producing enough RNG to serve the equivalent of 4,325 homes. 1

“We’re honored to work with these two great farms and an impactful team of partner companies to develop invaluable renewable energy,” said Kevin Dobson, vice president of biomass, DTE Vantage. “We’re taking bold steps to significantly increase our investments in renewable energy over the next 10 years and this project is a great example of that effort.”

The methane from the two farms’ manure waste is used to produce RNG that is injected by subsidiary, East Dakota Renewable Energy, LLC, into a pipeline onsite. From there, Clean Energy Renewable Fuels sells and distributes transportation fuel to local communities in California.

“DTE Vantage has been a long-term and reliable partner to Clean Energy, and a market leader in developing RNG projects,” said Tyler Henn, vice president and general manager, Clean Energy Renewables. “We are excited to be working together to decarbonize the transportation market. This dairy-to-RNG project will make a significant, positive impact on air quality by reducing greenhouse gases and delivering the lowest carbon intensity fuel to our customers.”

DTE Vantage developed and operates eight facilities in the U.S. that convert methane from dairy cow manure into sustainable RNG while offering compensation to its host farms. Manure left to decompose on farmland releases methane directly into the atmosphere, contributing to climate change. Diverting that manure to anaerobic digesters instead reduces a farm’s local greenhouse gas emissions through capturing the methane in raw biogas form and repurposing it as pipelinequality RNG.

Learn more about DTE Vantage’s renewable energy projects and facilities at dtevantage.com/business-lines/renewable-energy.