BP deploys first Archaea modular RNG plant at Rumpke landfill

Dive Brief:

Archaea Energy's first landfill-gas-to-RNG plant since the developer was bought by BP last year is coming online, the company announced Wednesday.
The facility, located at a Rumpke-owned landfill in Medora, Indiana, is the first of six that Archaea plans to bring online by the end of 2023, with dozens more on the way.
Archaea touted the facility's modular design and relative ease of deployment in a release. The streamlined technology is expected to help BP meet its goal to increase biogas supply volumes sixfold by 2030.

Dive Insight:

BP's $4.1 billion acquisition of Archaea Energy, which closed in December, capped off a heady year for the renewable natural gas business.

The company sold about 6 million mmBtus of RNG through the third quarter of last year, and capacity was ramping up at its Assai landfill gas facility, which Archaea describes as “the highest capacity operational RNG facility in the world.” Archaea was also on an acquisition and partnership spree, folding 14 landfill-gas-to-electricity facilities into its portfolio by acquiring Ingenco in July.

At the time BP and Archaea announced their deal, the Texas-based RNG developer operated 50 RNG and landfill-gas-to-energy plants in the U.S. The acquisition further energized Archaea's development pipeline — BP is pushing to bring 40 more RNG facilities online by 2025.

BP says with its acquisition of Archaea, it’s the largest RNG producer in the United States, and its targets for the portfolio company remain high. BP is aiming to have Archaea reach $500 million in earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization by 2025. Its last reported revenue, in the third quarter of 2022, was nearly $105 million.

The just-opened plant in Indiana processes 3,200 cubic feet of landfill gas per minute from an adjacent landfill owned by Rumpke Waste and Recycling, according to the release. It's the first to use the Archaea Modular Design, a system that places components of the RNG plant on skids and has interchangeable parts. The company said the standardized, modular design is faster to build than traditional, custom-built RNG plants.

"What we are doing at The Medora plant is phenomenal and it’s just the beginning of what’s to come at Archaea," Archaea CEO Starlee Sykes said in a statement. "This is a powerful step forward in our net zero journey to capture landfill emissions and provide customers with lower emission, lower carbon fuel.”