bp’s Archaea Energy starts up novel renewable gas plant in Indiana

bp PLC-owned Archaea Energy Inc. has officially commissioned a first-of-its-kind renewable natural gas (RNG) plant designed to process by-product gas from landfill decomposing waste in Medora, Ind.

Located adjacent to Rumpke Consolidated Companies Inc.-owned Rumpke Waste & Recycling’s landfill and in service as of Oct. 4, the new Medora RNG plant—which is based on Archaea Energy’s proprietary Archaea Modular Design (AMD)—is equipped to capture and process 3,200 cu ft/min. of landfill biogas into RNG, bp said.

Based on the US Environmental Protection Agency’s Landfill Gas Energy Benefits Calculator, RNG production from the new plant will provide enough gas to heat around 13,026 homes annually, the company said.

Able to convert its waste gas feedstock into electricity, heat, or RNG, the AMD Medora plant’s design helps to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) of processing activities as well as production, leading to cleaner air, less odor, and more sustainable energy when compared with traditional fossil fuel energy, according to bp and Archaea.

The Medora plant marks the first implementation of Archaea’s original AMD RNG plant design, which the company plans to replicate at additional US plants to be commissioned by yearend.

Unlike traditional RNG plants that, to date, have been custom built, Archaea Energy’s AMD standardized modular design streamlines and accelerates RNG plant build times by allowing plants to be built on skids with interchangeable components, the company said.

“[Startup of the Medora plant] is a powerful step forward in our net zero journey to capture landfill emissions and provide customers with lower-emission, lower-carbon fuel,” said Starlee Sykes, chief executive officer of Archaea Energy.

“Our goal is to safely bring several AMD plants online [across the US] this year,” Sykes said.

With addition of the Medora plant, Archaea Energy now operates more than 50 RNG and landfill gas-to-energy sites across the US, producing more than 6,000 boed of RNG, according to the company’s website.

bp’s biogas goals

The Medora RNG plant is the first plant Archaea Energy has started up since the company’s acquisition by bp in late 2022.

Upon announcing the proposed transaction in mid-October 2022, bp said its plan to acquire Houston-based Archaea Energy formed a key part of the global operator’s strategy to build on its existing biogas business and accelerate the bioenergy pillar of its five strategic transition growth engines that—alongside convenience, electric vehicle charging, renewables and power, and hydrogen—are designed to enhance the global operator’s ability to support customers’ decarbonization goals and lower the average carbon intensity of energy products bp sells in line with its global ambition to reach net zero by 2050 or sooner.

Now the largest US RNG producer following its close of the Archaea Energy deal on Dec. 28, 2022, bp said it plans to increase biogas supply volumes to about 70,000 boe/d by 2030.