Three JBS-affiliated processing facilities in the United States will produce renewable natural gas (RNG) through a partnership with GreenGasUSA.
Among those three facilities is the Pilgrim’s Pride poultry plant in Sumter, South Carolina, and the JBS USA beef plants in Grand Island, Nebraska, and Hyrum, Utah.
According to a press release, JBS, the parent company of JBS USA and majority stakeholder in Pilgrim’s Pride, believes it has a responsibility to help lead sustainable transformation by example. Because of that belief, the company is undertaking a comprehensive approach to address its own greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while also helping to empower its value chain to collectively move forward. One of JBS’s key strategies to address its emissions is to adopt circular economy technology to repurpose waste streams into renewable energy. This approach can help the food system meet the twin challenges of food security and addressing climate change impacts.
Through the JBS-GreenGasUSA partnership, JBS hopes to build upon its existing methane capture capabilities with a goal to maximize methane capture and RNG production.
By installing GreenGasUSA’s on-site gas upgrading systems, biogas collected from the wastewater streams of JBS facilities will be purified into pipeline-quality RNG, allowing end users to displace fossil fuel usage. This process is expected to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at these facilities while improving wastewater operations and local air and water quality, and support the renewable energy market through the distribution of Renewable Natural Gas.
The project at Pilgrim’s Sumter facility is scheduled to be completed in early 2025, while the JBS USA Grand Island and Hyrum projects are slated for completion at the end of 2025.
“At JBS and Pilgrim’s, we’re committed to reducing the impact of food production by partnering with stakeholders to reduce our carbon footprint. This collaboration with GreenGasUSA is a perfect example of these efforts,” said Wesley Batista Filho, CEO of JBS Foods USA. “This innovative approach takes what was once an unused byproduct of food production and transforms it to offset a significant amount of fossil fuels. This process can be a model for the rest of the industry to follow.”
“GreenGas is deeply committed to developing solutions that address GHG emissions in the most difficult-to-decarbonize industries,” said Marc Fetten, CEO and Founder of GreenGasUSA. “We see tremendous opportunity in our partnership with JBS USA to significantly reduce on-site environmental impacts, produce sustainable, renewable energy, and support climate change initiatives in other industries.”