Anaergia Inc. will provide renewable natural gas to FuelCell Energy’s Tri-gen system in order to produce carbon-negative hydrogen and electricity for Toyota’s Logistics Services Center at the Port of Long Beach, Calif.

The renewable natural gas (RNG) will be supplied via Burlington, Ont.-based Anaergia’s (ANRG-T) subsidiary, SoCal Biomethane, LLC, and facilitated by renewable fuels marketer Anew Climate.

“We are proud to support Toyota’s decarbonization goals at one of the largest ports in the world with the supply of carbon-negative renewable natural gas that enables emissions-free hydrogen fuel,” Yaniv Scherson, chief operating officer of Anaergia, said in a statement.

“Carbon-negative fuels like renewable natural gas are essential to creating a net-zero emissions world. Because it’s a drop-in fuel, renewable natural gas enables rapid decarbonization. It’s an immediately dispatchable platform for electricity and hydrogen production.”

Anaergia produces clean energy, fertilizer and recycled water at hundreds of facilities on four continents—it has eight offices and over 1,700 anaerobic digestion facilities globally.

Anaergia’s Victorville facility

Anaergia will provide the RNG via its SoCal biomethane facility in Victorville, Calif. It will be sold and delivered to FuelCell Energy through Anew, the RNG marketer for the Victorville facility.

The RNG itself is produced from food waste and municipal wastewater, with a capacity of processing 12 million gallons per day. According to Anaergia’s website, it is capable of producing 340,000 metric million British thermal units of renewable natural gas per year.

The facility, which completed its second phase in 2021, was created via a public-private partnership with the Victor Valley Wastewater Reclamation Authority and financing partner North Sky Capital.

Anaergia and Toyota

Toyota’s logistics centre is the largest port operation handling imports and exports for North America and processes about 200,000 vehicles per year.

FuelCell Energy’s Tri-gen system will produce approximately 1.3 tonnes of renewable hydrogen per day which will fuel Toyota Mirai vehicles. The fuel cells will also produce a net 2.3 megawatts of electricity, which according to a release is enough to power the Toyota Logistics Services Center and will add renewable electricity to the grid.

It will also produce roughly 1,400 gallons of water a day that will be used for car-washing operations.

The release also states the conversion of the RNG into renewable electricity is expected to avoid more than 9,000 tonnes of grid electricity greenhouse gas emissions per year. The renewable hydrogen is expected to avoid more than 4,000 tonnes of annual greenhouse gas emissions compared to traditional steam or fossil natural gas methods.

Anew is based in Houston, but has offices in Calgary and Vancouver among other locations.

“I truly believe that the only way we’re going to solve climate change, or at least get to net-zero some day, is if you take all the waste and turn it into fuel,” Anaergia CEO Andrew Benedek told SustainableBiz in July. He called RNG a “minute solution” for now, that will evolve into a critical part of the world’s net-zero goals as the rest of the globe catches on.