In the United States (US), Archaea Energy, a subsidiary of bp plc, and Waste Connections, Inc. have announced the opening of their first renewable natural gas (RNG) plant in Pennsylvania.
The RNG plant is adjacent to the Bethlehem Landfill in Lower Saucon Township, Pennsylvania which is owned by a Waste Connections subsidiary and came online in July 2024.
We are safely and efficiently scaling up at pace and building momentum with this new plant in Bethlehem. Archaea has brought six plants online to date in 2024, and we’re proud to continue to bring our commitment to capture landfill emissions and provide customers with lower-emission, lower-carbon fuel to the Keystone State, said Starlee Sykes, CEO at Archaea Energy.
LFG-to-RNG
The Bethlehem Landfill RNG plant converts landfill gas (LFG), a natural byproduct of the decomposition of waste, collected from the landfill into RNG, the use of which can lead to local air quality benefits and an increase and diversity of domestic energy production, according to the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).
The plant can process up to 3,500 standard cubic feet of landfill gas per minute (scfm) into RNG – enough gas to heat more than 14,000 homes annually, according to the EPA’s Landfill Gas Energy Benefits Calculator.
The partnership with Archaea and Waste Connections spans several years. In addition to the new RNG plant in Pennsylvania, Archaea owns and operates RNG plants adjacent to landfills owned by Waste Connections in Nebraska, New York, and Oklahoma.
The companies also have plants that convert landfill gas to electricity in Washington, Colorado, and Oregon.
With the 2022 acquisition of Archaea, bp is the largest RNG producer in the US, enhancing its ability to support customers’ decarbonization goals and progressing its aim to reduce the average lifecycle carbon intensity of the energy products it sells.
