The City of Dayton will sell biogas from its wastewater treatment plant to a private natural gas company. Officials say the project will lead to a 50% reduction in the city’s carbon footprint and estimate it will generate nearly $1 million in annual net revenue.
The plan makes Dayton one of a handful of Midwest cities selling its biogas for renewable energy.
Dayton's water reclamation facility on Guthrie Road accepts millions of gallons of wastewater daily from residential, business, and industrial customers. Through a series of tanks, the facility’s biodigester breaks down the organic waste to produce methane gas and carbon dioxide that can be converted into electricity.
Meg Maloney, Dayton’s sustainability manager, said during winter, the city captured about 60% of the methane gas to heat the wastewater treatment facility buildings and burned off the rest by flaring it.
For years, it wasn’t as financially profitable for the city to sell off its gas, but Maloney said now, it is, plus there’s a significant environmental benefit.
“Now's the time, the market's looking really good. And that's where we realized that we could generate close to $1 million in net revenue each year as well as get rid of one of our largest carbon emitters.” Maloney said.
The city plans to sell its biogas to DTE Biomass Energy, which will install a pipeline to its own facility at no cost to the city. For the duration of the 20-year contract, the city estimates the project will generate a net revenue of $16 million that will go toward its sanitary sewer fund.
“The main thing DTE is doing in this process is they're cleaning the gas, so they're capturing our gas, it has to go through a scrubber process where it becomes clean and then they're injecting it into the natural gas pipeline.” Maloney said.
The pipeline is expected to be operational by fall of 2024.
Alejandro Figueroa is a corps member with Report for America, a national service program that places journalists into local newsrooms.
