CR&R Environmental, a waste service company serving more than 2.5 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, 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 and distributed through SoCalGas’ pipeline infrastructure. CR&R funded the installation of approximately 1.4 miles of new SoCalGas pipeline and a utility-owned receipt point located on CR&R’s property in Perris.
Sourced primarily from green waste and some food waste from 17 cities, the RNG fuels approximately 400 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 has the capacity to convert 335,000 tons of organic waste into enough renewable natural gas to displace 4 million gallons of diesel fuel annually. While organic waste is primarily converted to clean fuel, nutrient-rich solids left from the AD process will be used to make other products. These solids are currently being composted with other green waste and purchased by major soil product producers for soil enrichment commodities.
As of April 2018, SoCalGas and CR&R Environmental announced they are now injecting renewable natural gas produced at CR&R's anaerobic digestion facility in Perris, Calif., into SoCalGas pipeline.
Read the press release.