The leader in clean and advanced fueling operations.
CR&R Environmental, a waste service company serving more than 3 million customers throughout Southern California, operates one of the cleanest and most advanced fueling operations of any refuse fleet in the nation. In 2018 CR&R began operating the first commercial-scale facility in California to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) for injection into the SoCalGas® pipeline. Predominantly privately financed with additional financial support from the California Energy Commission (CEC), California Public Utility Commission (CPUC), CalRecycle, and the South Coast Air Quality Management District (SCAQMD), the project converts organic waste to biogas at its Perris, CA, anaerobic digestion (AD) plant. This biogas is then upgraded to RNG and distributed through SoCalGas' pipeline infrastructure.
CR&R funded the installation of approximately 1.4 miles of new SoCalGas pipeline and a utility-owned point of receipt (POR) located on CR&R's property.
The feedstock is primarily green waste and food waste from 23 cities, the RNG fuels approximately 100 of the company's refuse trucks; however, plans are to run the entire 1000-truck fleet on this renewable gas. While the current plan is to use the fuel exclusively in its own operations, leveraging access to SoCalGas' pipeline made sense from both a distribution and storage standpoint. This facility will have the capacity to convert 335,000 tons of organic waste into enough RNG to displace 4 million gallons of diesel fuel annually. While organic waste is primarily converted into RNG, nutrient-rich solids left from the AD process will be used to make other products. These solids are currently being purchased by major soil product producers for soil enrichment commodities.
Read the press release.