 Good afternoon everyone. We're just gonna get started here. I'm told Congressman Peters is supposed to come and make remarks Which will be wonderful. I'm told he has a vote So what we're gonna do is sort of pause whenever he's able to come and join us and then we'll resume I'm Jesse Stollark. I'm a policy associate with the Environmental and Energy Study Institute And thank you again for joining us here this afternoon and for all of you joining us online Can you not hear me? That's better. Good. Thank you Maureen. So we have a very exciting program About biogas and the tremendous opportunities in terms of waste management I want to thank before we begin our wonderful partners and in planning this briefing the American Biogas Council ABC represents over 200 companies from around the world and across the biogas and anaerobic digestion supply chain and Then if you weren't already aware of my organization EESI We were founded over 30 years ago by a bipartisan congressional caucus and today We now function as independent nonprofit and we provide nonpartisan fact-based information on a range of energy and environmental issues to inform Congress and stakeholders So before we start today, I'll just tee it up a little bit on biogas in the United States If you weren't aware for those of you who are not with ABC today Our waste management issues continue to grow the US alone already produces more than 70 million tons of organic waste per year This includes both edible and non-edible food waste as well as manure agricultural waste and biosolids and while we absolutely must address the fact that we needlessly waste 40% of our edible food in this country We still have a tremendous waste management situation on our hands Despite these challenges. There is a tremendous opportunity in utilizing biogas and anaerobic digestion systems to create positive outcomes from waste management and also create economic activity and opportunity in so doing So we have a great panel for you here today I'm going to introduce our first speaker, which is Patrick surface Patrick surface has led the American Biogas Council since early 2010 When he helped 22 companies come together to form the only trade association Representing the entire biogas industry in the United States ABC now represents over 200 organizations and has a network of more than 11,000 stakeholders in the biogas industry Patrick has over 15 years experience growing other clean energy industries like solar Hydrogen and fuel cells through the company that he manages that manages ABC technology transition corporation. So I'll turn it over to Patrick Great. Thank you, Jesse and good afternoon everyone a big thanks to ESI for helping us to organize this briefing for all of you and also to congressman Peters for helping to sponsor this and And make sure that we have a space to be able to talk to you about biogas today That's our favorite topic. I think you'll find that our members who are up here who are going to talk to you about Specific projects in the biogas industry. We're hoping we're hoping that that'll be really interesting to you I'm going to talk to you very Broadly about the biogas industry been very shortly And then really I want them to have the spotlight because their individual projects are really going to show you how the biogas industry works and The benefits that you get from it so the biogas industry is the trade association for for the biogas industry and the biogas council is and We represent the entire biogas industry There are a few other groups out there that are regionally focused or focused on one part of the biogas industry We cover the whole industry and so if you need information about biogas and all the different things that we do Please do come to us as a resource Here's your look about at what a biogas system is if you're not familiar with it Basically what we're doing is we're taking in organic material and we're digesting it And then we're creating a gas liquid and solid stream coming out of that and each one of those streams can be turned into different products So what is organic material organic material? Generally? We're thinking of manure so manure from cows poultry and pigs wastewater biosolids those are the solids that you pull out of everything you flush down the toilet and send down the sink and You'll be hearing about what happens when you flush the toilet here and Send stuff down your sink here with that stuff because it does get turned into biogas Which I think is pretty awesome and then food waste and that includes food scraps that may come from your home Or from a restaurant, but it also includes industrial food waste as well And then all kinds of other organics woody waste can sometimes be included And there are some ways to do that that we use woody waste at Clark's facility He'll talk about that generally though across the industry We're talking about non woody waste all that organic material goes into a closed tank And in that closed tank just like in a cow's stomach and like our stomachs We have microbes in there that are eating up the organic material when a cow's stomach and in an anaerobic Digester the specific microbes that are in there eat up the organic material and they burp out methane and that methane is Captured in the closed tank so that methane rises to the top of a tank like this Sometimes they're below ground sometimes they're above ground, but they rise up to the top and we capture all of that and that's your energy So all of the gas then comes over this way and it can be used for electricity You can turn your gas into heat you can turn it into vehicle fuel You can put it into the pipeline for any of those uses you always process it a little bit the raw biogas coming up You process it and then When you process it to pipeline quality Like our natural gas pipelines it is exactly the same as fossil natural gas in terms of its molecular structure But it's been renewably produced so you can use it exactly the same way that you can natural gas but this is renewable natural gas on Digestate the digest it is your liquid and solid stream And this is really important because I think a lot of folks see the biogas industry as an energy Industry and energy interest and it is true that energy and renewable energy is really important to us And is a big part of what we do, but it's not all that we do and part of what we would like you to be able to take Away from today is those other things besides energy that our industry offers and it brings because it's those value-added things That I think are being overlooked and help you to understand well if we're asking for this policy In Congress to help grow the biogas industry or help solve some issue Well, let's look at how the cost of that policy compares to all the different value that's coming out All the nutrients that are in all the organic material that came in those nutrients after they go through the digestor those nutrients are still there Your nitrogen's your phosphorus and your potassium are all still there And so we're recycling those nutrients But those nutrients are now in a better state than they were before because instead of putting a banana peel on the ground Or in a field or instead of spreading raw manure on the field or raw sewage on the field Now that organic material has been digested and it's fully broken down and in a state that the plants are ready to absorb those Nutrients and so that helps the number of things first of all crops are going to go faster and right away But also those nutrients aren't going to run off into the watershed as much because they're getting absorbed by the soil right away And the material is a lot safer because you've usually killed all the pathogens that might have been in the manure Initially and now you can apply the digested on the crops that are growing instead of or soon to grow Instead of raw manure, which you definitely don't want to do that with so the digested is a safer and more valuable material that you have with and by the way We've probably knocked down Most of the way or all the way the odor associated with those materials And so if you're a neighbor next to a farm and your farmer has been really successful with their business And their herd size is growing while their animals are growing the amount of manure that they're producing is growing The odor related to that manure could be growing unless you can contain that manure and manage it in a closed Biogas system. So those are some of the things that our industry Offers here and you know a lot of the policies that I'll talk about at the end are energy related But I want you to make sure that you understand the nutrient Recycling value and the digested value the soil amendment value that we have and then all the material that we're really managing So this is your current economics Economic slide and this is the last thing that I'm going to leave you with here before I turn it over to our friends So we currently have 2,000 operational biogas systems in the country and all those dots on the map There are where those operational systems are the blue ones are at wastewater treatment facilities The red ones are on farms The yellow ones are at landfills and there are a few green ones on there And those are our food waste only systems food waste can be added to all of them But we have standalone food waste systems to so we don't double count we send we count those separately So 2,000 operational systems around the country, but we see the potential for over 13,000 new systems that could be developed and that's a lot Europe has a really mature biogas industry and they've got 10,000 system We can do more than what's being developed in Europe. We can create the economic development that comes along with that So what does that look like economically? 13,000 13 to 14,000 new systems is at least 40 billion dollars in new capital investment It's over 300,000 new construction jobs. It's over 20 some thousand permanent Operational jobs and these are jobs that don't just come in once to install the systems These are the operational jobs that are every year after year after year after these systems are operating. These are good high-paying Blue-collar jobs to help operate our digesters. Oh, and by the way, we protect the air We protect the water we protect the soil along the way So you wouldn't be surprised to hear all those great things from us We believe the biogas can can do a lot, but I want you to hear directly about how this works with actual projects And we'll talk to you about policy in just a minute. Thank you Thanks Patrick for that great introduction. So next up we have Brian severs Brian owns and manages his 2,300 acre family farm which has been in operation since the mid 1800s the severs family farm raises 2,400 head of cattle and has a renewable energy facility with a combined heat and power anaerobic Digester which is a one megawatt system which is fueled by the methane on the farm and was created in 2013 today The digesters process over 50,000 gallons of cattle manure per day just think about that and Another off-site co-feeds in the complete mix system the electricity that's generated 24 hours per day seven days per week is sold to The local service provider. He is also currently serving as chair of the Iowa Economic Development Authority's biomass conversion committee And has served two times in the Iowa legislature. I'm going to hand it over to Brian Thank you very much for that warm introduction Actually, if you noticed When Patrick started talking about how biogas systems work I had to turn around to make sure I was doing it the right way So I was glad to see that that I was so thank you for that slide to make sure I'm going to actually pull up my presentation on my screen as well because I have a number of Comments that I want to be able to share that are going to add to hopefully the value of my presentation So let me just a second to do that okay, so Brian severs farmer beef producer producer of Water quality benefits soil health benefits and oh by the way we produce biogas too And that biogas is used to generate electricity on our farm But what I'm wanting to do today is talk to you a little bit about Aneropic digestion from a farmer's perspective in Iowa What our facility does and and what type of production we have in our ad facility? Why these types of on-farm systems are important to not only agriculture, but to the United States in general and And I'd like to also ask You know, how could how can we help you? Or others possibly achieve the beneficial results from from anaerobic digestion systems like ours Aga renew is a company that my wife and and I do want to also Make note that my wife Lisa is here today She's joined us came from Iowa and took a few days off from From the busy life of trying to run a farm and a feedlot in a renewable energy facility So thank you for for joining on me on this trip And we've been married for 36 years and she's now been my business partner on this project for about I don't know 10 years and let me say being a business partner and married to your business partner is challenging But I love every single day of it and builds character Recycling farm nutrients agriculture processing ways for energy generation water quality and soil health That's what I wanted to talk about today If I go and talk a little bit about aga renew and who we are we're on a farm Located near the little town of Stockton, Iowa. That's an extreme eastern, Iowa As I indicated we recycle farm nutrients such as beef cattle manure biomass And other carbon-based substrates for energy generation and odor control Aga renew is a joint venture that severs family farms and severs renewable energy to LLCs that my wife and I created along with Davidson renewable energy, which is a 20% owner a partner in aga renew and that is owned by a dr. Bill Davidson and his wife Judy dr Davidson is a gastroenterologist in the in the Davenport, Iowa area Aga renew owns all the structures needed for the processing of our waste streams Those include two anaerobic digesters effluent storage structures Separated solid storage structures biomass storage structures separators dosing in his pumps, etc And we're located on a farm in northwest portion of Scott County, Iowa in extreme eastern, Iowa near the Mississippi River We Created severs family farms back in 2010 to start this path We actually I went to a conference in Madison, Wisconsin an anaerobic digester conference And and as was alluded to I had served a couple terms in the Iowa legislature one on the house side one on the Senate side After I got out of the legislature in 2004 We started looking at ways to expand our farming operation and specifically our beef cattle operation It took four to five years before I really started to kind of settle on the idea or concept of that closed loop system Where we could take the resources that were blessed with on our farm and maximize the value of those Natural resources right there in our facilities So again severs family farms owns the the cattle barns the commodity storage structures and other Nutrient handling equipment So when we have a meeting with our junior executives, this is a lot of times what it looks like Love our family. In fact, I had a picture of our new well, she's now one-year-old granddaughter So she would join our junior executive team very shortly here But this is really what it's all about. It's a family operation it's it's Built essentially by my wife and I we were very fortunate when we actually went through the construction process We served as our own general contractors our son who had graduated with a law degree from Drake University and had gotten a degree in egg and biosystems engineering from Iowa State served as our Manager of our project and so it was really really awesome to be able to have your own son managing the construction of this digester He's now moved on to greener pastures He now actually serves as a patent attorney for John Deere in East Moline Which is just about 25 or 30 minutes away from where our farm is located But he still lives close by with his family and four grandchildren of ours So we're very blessed to have that involvement, but it's certainly a family operation and and we're very proud of that This is an aerial view of the facility after we had constructed our first two cattle barns The two cattle barns are as I indicated earlier were 1200 head facilities Severs family farms owns the facilities another company that we created Glenora feed yard rents the facilities from Severs family farms and feeds cattle in these facilities manure is now contained and then is utilized in our on farm digester just another shot of the cattle barns and I'm going to move through quickly here. Here's the an interior shot of our cattle barns where our cattle are housed and then on to the digester These are the two complete mix In orbit digesters we completed construction on in September of 2013 They are both 970,000 gallon complete mix tanks. We also have a CHP Combined heat and power engine that we generate electricity from the biogas. That's produced from the facilities The important thing I wanted to mention at this point is that we were able to take Assistance through some just some awesome USDA programs through reap Through equip and now also utilize B cap to use that incentive to leverage the investment That was necessary to build our facility the anaerobic digester facility total cap X was around seven and a half million dollars The cattle barns and other structures totaled up to about four four and a half million dollars So total of 12 million dollars was leveraged by that five hundred thousand dollar reap grant. We received that's one of the points I want to drive home programs that are beneficial to agriculture to rural communities are able to leverage additional private equity investment dollars This is an example of that again at just another shot of our anaerobic digester tanks and Finally one more from a grain leg that we had that I decided to climb up and take a shot off one morning I'm quickly claim back down because it was windy This is our Caterpillar 3516 gen set. It's a one megawatt gen set We run that 24 7 of course Generate, you know roughly 23 and a half megawatts a day of electricity We sell that to our local power company aligned energy Our rate is sick currently 6.4 cents per kilowatt hour that rate will drop to 4.8 cents per kilowatt hour in October for two more years and then in 2020 in October of 2020 our power purchase agreement will expire and Lord knows what the rate will be at that point But it's probably gonna be in that two and a half to three cent range I would guess that's gonna prevent present a tremendous challenge for us at that point financially Talk a little bit about food waste when we started our digester facility We of course use the cattle manure as our base co-feed or substrate for that digester Since then we've added a number of food processing waste streams from local processors Chick-hatch waste turkey processing waste Waste streams from ethanol plants biodiesel plants pork processing plants We basically take waste streams from all the major meat species in the area And then as well as waste streams from the ethanol and biodiesel industry Food waste has really helped us go from running at 40 to 50 percent of Capacity to 100 percent of capacity. That's why food waste for us personally, but from a bigger perspective Utilizing that food waste to a higher and better use is really what we're all about I'm gonna talk a little bit about manure and how it varies from site to site Our manure and this is a good one for after lunch It looks like this as it comes off of our cattle barns. It's a high solids material We have to water it down so that we can Utilize that in our in our digesters. We also as I mentioned earlier take other waste streams soil oil waste glycerin animal processing waste One thing we're trying to utilize now in our system is biomass We are using cover crops as an energy source in our digesters and working extremely well That's something that I think we're going to continue to evaluate But I think it offers some tremendous potential for for agricultural opportunities in the Midwest going forward Just to show a little bit about our energy production how we're starting to really ramp up and get to nearly 100% load in In 2016 we generated just under 60,000 MMB to use of methane in 2017 we're at 97 and a half thousand 65% increase in methane production a little over 18% increase in electricity production This is just a picture of our one of our liquid defluent storage tanks Bet the equip funding help pay for And then here's what we are now starting to market to some of the local lawn and garden centers But move post which is a separated solids material coming out of the digesters Oh, I'm sorry Current level of energy production Digestate that we're producing currently is around 20 million gallons Total of which 16 million gallons is in the liquid fraction and about 25 26 million pounds of bio fibers are produced Annually now we expect that to continue to go up All of those as Patrick mentioned are really as far as I'm concerned where the the silver lining is for our operation Those are extremely valuable sources of nutrients soil amendments for our soil We're able to put back the nitrogen phosphorus potassium and sulfur to our soil as well as the organic matter That not only comes from from the way streams right on our own farm But because we take in co-feeds from variety of sources We're able to trap that carbon and those other nutrients take those nutrients and apply those back to our farm and build and increase And improve our soil health. I think I went the wrong way There we are so to wrap up a Renew along with sewers family farms has created what we believe is an innovative way to capture all the beneficial aspects of Renewable energy production Hopefully I've talked a little bit about our facility what we're doing in terms of processing our our waste streams And why these types of on-farm systems will work? I think not only in Iowa, but in all areas of the United States Especially as we look to new emerging biomass sources of energy With that I will conclude and turn it over. Thank you Thank you, Brian for that great egg story about how you're utilizing all these resources all these wastes But they're not wastes on your on your family farm. We're gonna actually shift to a story about something That's actually right in our backyard here in Washington DC Chris Piat is the director of resource recovery for the district of Columbia water and sewer authority or DC water He directs the recovery of resources at the authority by establishing policies plans and procedures related to the recycling and extraction of value from Recovered resources Additionally, he will manage the biosolids reuse program including contracts for reuse and product development Mr. Piat will also work to optimize the reuse of the authorities underutilized resources including the biosolids product With respect to water energy carbon and nutrients, so I'll turn it over to Chris. Thank you Thank you very much. I really appreciate the opportunity to come I'm your neighbor. So anybody that wants to come and see a Advanced wastewater treatment plant give me a call anytime. We'd love to give you a tour There's a lot to see so I was excited to have the opportunity to come today because I work at this gigantic wastewater treatment plant not everybody really thinks about what happens when they flush and where everything goes and What we do is we remove the pollutants and air quotes from the water and then return the clean water back to the environment and in our case those pollutants are Carbon and nutrients largely and of course carbon and nutrients have value So what I want to emphasize today is the asset that every city in America is sitting on top of because we all have wastewater treatment plants We all collect the sewage and we all treat it Some municipalities choose to put it in a landfill some make use of it There's all kinds of different things that we can do so I would like to just Emphasize that this is an asset and that we can do quite a bit with it We don't even refer to ourselves as a wastewater treatment plant anymore, but rather as a resource recovery facility Recovering of course water the world's most precious commodity, but also nutrients carbon and energy And oftentimes carbon and energy get lumped together because carbon is energy We like to separate it because we are producing some a large amount of energy clean green renewable energy from our digesters But the digest that digest date that comes out of the bottom gets returned to the earth from which it came And it's really important to return some of that carbon back to the land We've always been very proud of our biosolids reuse program for 20 plus years. We've been recycling what EPA designates as class B biosolids and Really the only place you can take it is out to a farm, which is great because we're urban dwellers. We import carbon and nutrients from Rural areas we take water from the river. We make use of it What we don't use ends up down at the resource recovery facility. We return the clean water back to the river Cleaner than when we took it out of the river to be honest We make clean green renewable energy it's tier one renewable energy and then we're returning that carbon back again to the earth From which it came And you can see I mean we we are proud of the fact that we are completing that carbon and nutrient cycle But we'd really like to tighten that circle a little bit too because it takes energy to take the solids out to rural Farms and if we can tighten that circle and make use of the asset in the service area, that's even better So now we have digesters that we just built that we're extremely proud of I'm very proud of our board for putting up This money. It was a discretionary project. We didn't have to do it 470 million dollars is usually a sum of money that's reserved for projects that are forced upon us by consent decree or something and this is one that made incredible environmental and economic sense and our board Trusted the technical staff and we made a business case and we built it and it's been operating for about three years It is Digesters here. I have four 3.8 million gallon digesters. It's preceded by this process here, which I'm going to talk about a little bit It's thermal hydrolysis. It's a high heat high pressure system that completely obliterates all of the pathogens and prepares the food So it's very available for the hungry archaea microbes in the digesters and We then the digesters produce the gas the gas comes out of the top of the digesters We clean it up. We have three five megawatt turbines We're producing about eight to ten megawatts of power right now. We use that power on site We're the biggest user of electricity in DC as a single site user Almost every wastewater treatment plant in a city is because of all the power and the blowers and the pumps We our demand is 25 megawatts. So this eight to ten megawatts provides over a third of our needs Which again huge cost savings It's really great for our carbon footprint as well But then maybe the coolest part is that the Turbines when they spin they generate a lot of heat you have to shed that heat or you're going to melt your turbine So we put heat recovery steam generators at the end of each of the turbines capture that heat convert it to steam And that's what we use to heat up the can be system, which is a hundred and sixty degrees centigrade. That's very hot And then we don't need any external energy to heat that up. It's incredibly energy efficient. It's really great So this is just a block diagram of that exact same thing Gas comes out of the digesters. We make electricity pull the steam off Generate the heat to heat up the can be system. What I haven't talked about is the digest state So the digesters are not a hundred percent efficient. They do not convert all of the organic matter to Methane so whatever is left coming out of the bottom. It's a very stable Really nice soil like product comes out and we dewater it to about 30 percent solids and it goes out to farms. We send it to Landscapers to soil blenders. We're actually selling some of it on the market Very proud of that So the digesters whenever you build a digester you want it to last for a very long time. So we overbuilt We are and we have the capacity to Take 450 dry tons per day of solids through our digesters That's what we think we were going to be producing in 30 years. So right now. We're only producing Or processing about 300 dry tons per day. So there's 50 percent more capacity there That means we have the ability to import outside wastes Such as food waste we're working with the city the district of Columbia Department of Public Works to on a feasibility study to determine whether or Not it makes economic and technical sense for us to do it. We built this gigantic huge Codigestion model that looks at the operations looks at the expenditures the costs Looks at everything. You know we bring in food waste. It has ammonia nitrogen in it, which then has to Get dropped out and sent to the head of the plant and it takes energy and Cost money to to recycle that Program benefits are we reduce the cost improves the product quality generates a lot of clean green renewable energy Cuts the greenhouse gas emissions by 50,000 metric tons of CO2 equivalent emissions annually. It's about a third And oh by the way saves us millions of dollars a year So I really think it's the rare combination of a municipal project that makes great economic and environmental sense So the solids end up on the farms. This is one of our farms in Falk here County, Virginia Farmers love it, but we have Forever taken it out there and give it away for free. We now have the class a material which we can use in an urban setting We've been using it on community gardens And this this picture on the bottom is Casey trees. It's a nonprofit in DC whose job it is to Reduce or improve the tree canopy in the city and that helps us too because the more trees There are the less water ends up on the street and then down at the sewage treatment plant we have Sold some materials to some construction companies who are making a manufactured topsoil out of it as well These guys did this all winter long because they couldn't find a good source of organic material I went out there and took some photos a few weeks ago and The guys had the audacity to complain about mowing. They were mowing too much because the grass was too thick We've branded our product. It's bloom. We're very proud of this branding efforts the infinity symbol, of course canoes recycling with the Tagline good soils very obvious better earth starts the conversation About carbon sequestration and green energy production There is a national potential here I just did some extrapolation based on what we're doing and if The entire nation took their biosolids the 7.1 million dry tons of biosolids that are produced annually and Generated electricity like we do not really feasible, but if everybody did It would generate four points four point nine billion kilowatt hours per year. That's enough to power about a half million average American homes Renewable energy credits are worth anywhere is between 25 million and a billion dollars a year and you could produce 16 billion pounds of steam for things like cooling towers and building heat So with that I'm gonna wrap it up our Mantra is there is no such thing as waste only wasted resources. So I'm here to answer questions afterwards if you have any Thank you Thank You Chris. We're gonna pause now. We have a congressman Scott Peters with us Congressman Peters serves California's 52nd congressional district Which includes the cities of Coronado Poe and most of northern San Diego first elected in 2012 He currently serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee in the House Committee on Veterans Affairs He is also a member of the renewable energy and energy efficiency caucus the bipartisan climate solutions caucus and the biofuels caucus Among many others, please welcome. Please join me in welcoming Congressman Peters Hey, thanks for having me. Thanks for accommodating my schedule. We just did our first round of votes. So I was a little bit late So thank you Thanks to the environment and energy study Institute and the American Biogas Council for hosting this briefing Let me just say that the upside of Not passing the farm bill is that we didn't pass the farm bill For now we're spared from a bill that would have eliminated the energy title and forced unreserved Underserved communities to work harder for the reduced benefits, but there's still time to pass a good farm bill That would create new economic opportunities for farmers ranchers Small rural businesses renewable biotech and energy efficiency companies in all 50 states That's what I'm excited to introduce the people here who have found different ways to turn waste streams like food waste manure agricultural waste and wastewater into profitable enterprises that employ thousands of people Not to spoil the show, but you'll hear from a leave of my play heard from this people already So a municipal water utility that nets 10 megawatts of electricity from wastewater treatment anybody there Okay Company that uses methane emissions from a landfill to produce clean renewable natural gas that powers its large fleet of refuse and recycling trucks close enough a Family-owned cattle farm that converts methane gas into manure from electricity excellent. They're all here and that we took attendance I'm excited about the future of bio energy carbon capture and sequestration Technologies as a waste management solution that will not only open up new energy markets But we'll put us on a path toward negative carbon emissions So here's a couple of our legends my legislative priorities, which I will try to turn into as big in of an hour legislative priorities as possible We need to create demand in the markets for biogas and for carbon I've got to make sure that all products from a biogas system including fiber Nutrient products and digestate are eligible for the bio preferred and bio refinery loan programs We should also advance clean energy and carbon utilization technologies because we can't make our need our two degrees Celsius target By the end of this century without them and we should open loan guarantees to carbon capture and carbon utilization equipment At all bio refineries and coordinate policies programs and research to accelerate investment in advanced energy technologies You need to level the playing field and that's your best argument typically around here for all energy companies and technologies Because we're going to need a diverse mix of energy generation from natural gas to nuclear to wind and solar and even algae To meet our energy needs and she didn't mention that. I am the co-chair of the bipartisan regressional algae caucus So it makes me a pond scum politician And I'm a little biased and placing a long bet on al go biofuels Neither plant animal nor fungi Algae is an amazing creature and UCSD in my home district is making Flip-flops and surfboards out of algae instead of petroleum. I actually have an algae surfboard hanging in my office in Longworth There you go, excellent. I can't really use biogas on the wall, but I Recently introduced the bipartisan algae Agriculture Act of 2018 alongside my colleagues Representative Lohood Kilmer Biggs Luhan Grisham if you know anything about those people that is from the tea party to the super left wing So there's a there's a wide variety of people supporting algae and as I decide I'll say the one good thing about the house bill was that it included an amendment from our bill house Farm bill to establish algae R&D program at USDA So you're gonna hear today and you've heard today From people who shall be an example to lawmakers that waste just something we have a lot around here in DC is three things It's a revenue opportunity Sustainable and affordable energy source and a crucial part of our strategy to show just slow and maybe reverse the effects of climate change So I'm working on this as part of the energy subcommittee. So when I signed up when I came to Congress. It was to work on climate This is my third term. It's hard to get on the energy and commerce committee. I finally made it I chose energy as my first choice. So I'm now the third ranking Democrat on energy It is something that I really want to work on. I'm really excited about what you're all doing So I hope you'll consider us one of your entry points into this if we miss anything Let us know we're working right now with folks in the Senate to introduce legislation around these priorities We hope to find that the political constituency constituency for these issues in general is as wide as we found in algae and Is enough under the radar that we might actually get it passed? It's not this if not this round, but certainly the beginning of next term With or without the farm bill. We hope we want to help ranchers farmers rural small businesses renewables biotech and energy efficiency companies in all 50 states Compete to solve our current energy and future energy needs We look forward to working with you all wish you very good luck and Stay cool out there. It's gonna get warm And have a good have a good meeting. Take care. Thank you Okay, so after that brief interlude to hear about some congressional priorities I'm gonna turn it over to Clark Pauly Clark is the vice president and CNR and CR and our environmental services bioenergy division which encompasses organics recycling anaerobic digestion and composting CR and R is a privately held integrated waste management company based in Orange County, California With 50 municipal contracts and over 3 million customers in five counties Clark's primary focus at CR and R is on the marketing and sales of biomethane Carbon credits and organic soil products from anaerobic digestion. I'm gonna hand it over to Clark Thanks, ESI ESI and ABC for having me today It's an honor to be here like to tell you a little bit about what's going on in California around organics Recycling lots of exciting things going on and thanks to congressman Peters for all he's doing for our industry Definitely helping what we're doing and he's also doing a lot for our environment. So thanks for all the support We need all that we can get When I say I want to give you a little snapshot of what we're doing in California It's I must say it's challenging to try to come up with about an eight-minute presentation about That covers the topic at hand and then also kind of gives you a flavor of what we're doing here and in California But it's a little bit like trying to drink from a fire hose take a little sip of water But so forgive me for I'm gonna read some some of my slides here to keep me a little bit more focused Because I tend to get a little bit excited and off off-track so But just a little bit about our company heard privately held waste hauler based in Southern, California We have about 3 million residential customers 30,000 or 50,000 commercial Contracts about 50 municipal contracts about 50 1500 employees and we've been at that been added since the 1960s and basically, we're just modern-day garbage men and women and Maybe we'll call ourselves garbage people 2.0 Thank you So when it comes to let's see if we go one to video Okay Okay So when it comes to looking at organics recycling in California I think it's helpful to start looking at the regulatory framework and incentives that are really driving The organics recycling in the state and in the past several years of California legislature has been really busy at enacting legislation that encourages recycling and waste diversion in general now particularly organics recycling Now when I say organics in this context like Patrick Elucidated on I'm talking specifically about yard waste food waste and wood waste Those are the most common materials that are ideally suited for anaerobic digestion or in composting Organics recycling is really the last frontier of recycling in our business and it represents about 30% what's going into landfills nationwide And at the end of 2016 in California, we passed an enormous piece of organics recycling legislation and It's called SB Senate bill 1383 and it's just now in the process of being implemented So you can see that we have a number of different bills here that have been sort of the foundation of the Organics recycling from the material side and then we have this SB 1383 is now just come to light as being the most significant piece of legislation that's going to really be driving organics recycling into the future So just just in terms of numbers We're looking at this piece of legislation is calling for off of 2014 landfill numbers a 50% reduction by 2020 In case anybody didn't check their calendar That's only in two years and then a 75% reduction the level of disposal by 2025 and that's only you know six years away So a really really big number This is what it looks like on on a graph here. Here we are today, you know, roughly in our disposal We need to buy 2025 we need to get it find a home for about 12 million tons per year of Organics to get those out of the landfill So how do we do that on there on the incentive side and the governor with the help of a very supportive legislature practice and very workable financial incentives to keep Help finance some of these greenhouse gas reduction recycling initiatives. The core of these incentives would be SB and AB 32 SB AB 32 that really let's set the foundation For the greenhouse gas reduction goals and the core of that program is a carbon cap and trade program That provides revenue and support for these programs These cap and trade funds pay for seeding a lot of new carbon infrastructure projects that are having a positive impact on Greenhouse gas reduction and creating jobs in the state Now on the federal side one of the biggest drivers for that for us that are producing renewable fuels Continues to be the renewable fuel standard. We're all familiar that I think in this room. I hope and in our case we're producing a Renewable cellulosic fuel and helps off these credits actually help offset the capital costs of project development Which helps projects get financed So we have our big goals. We have some incentives and cement financial drivers and here's what we've done with them So here's our solution or California California size solution to help achieve some of these goals We've now built to our first two phases of a four-phase project a regional anaerobic digester including a dedicated organics receiving building to to digestors and Also a control building and gas cleanup system see some pictures of that later Just in terms of numbers we're That full capacity were at 320,000 tons per year in four equal phases our feedstocks or municipal source I've heard a yard waste and food waste Our location is in Paris. That's in Riverside County, California. That's the other Paris the one without croissants in red wine and in the startup first phase was September 2016 and then we just are very pleased with the Getting our second phase up running very quickly once the construction was started or completed and just March last this year So in terms of products, we're going to be producing at full build out about four million gasoline gallon equivalents of renewable fuel cellulosic fuel per year and And we'll be generating a very nice quality bagged quality compost to have about a hundred fifty thousand tons per year So Patrick did a great job of giving you the really basics on AD 101 but on the technology side just just I'll just say in very basic terms We've built the world's largest cow stomach on the and the front front end the cow eats are separated yard waste food waste It goes through a continuously stirred process at thermophilic temperatures meaning it has a little bit warmer than normal Kills all the pathogens goes solids drop out to make our solid fertilizer and we have a liquid Product as well that can either be recirculated back to help the biology now out the back end Comes the gas just like a cow we purify this gas into 99 and a half percent pure methane in order to inject it into the SoCal gas pipeline, and we have a nice liquid soil amendment as well And so we are able to capture all of the valuable products in the process of Eneroically digesting them and putting them through our process So just some fun facts about our projects We'll convert all of our organic yard waste into fertilizer renewable natural gas Probably program will keep organic waste out of the landfill Our met methane is about 84 times more damaging the atmosphere than carbon dioxide and burning renewable natural gas in our trucks actually destroys methane and renewable natural gas has a much lower carbon intensity than fossil gas and powering trucks in our With our fuel is actually about 90 percent lower on the emission side than a traditional diesel vehicle so Here's some pictures of where we are today. We have our first two phases complete and Our control building a gas cleanup systems complete we had our basic gas cleanup system here in order to get to meet the big SoCal gas pipeline spec. We had to build a separate system just to get that last per 2% of purity complete We have a nice control building and every basically every motor in the whole facility is controlled through this facility on the ray of computer screens And we had to build this in order to keep the what's going into the front end very clean We had to build this dedicated Organics receiving building all the loads are tipped into this facility cleaned up with a process of combination of mechanical and Automated separation technologies of an in-house lab where we can Test all of on a daily basis all the health of the digester The biogas content and also evaluate new feedstocks coming in And on the back end as I mentioned we're very serious about cleaning up the material coming in the front end So coming out the back end. We have a very clean Digestate in this case we turn it into a Composed product that we can sell into a our the highest end market, which would be bagged fertilizer manufacturers, so you'll find this stuff some of our materials blended into Play the stuff you'll find at Home Depot and other home centers And so this is our biggest milestone here We just reached about a month ago. We finally did get in to the this is a SoCal gas point of receipt this is located on our site and We finally got to the approval to start wheeling our gas into the pipeline and like I said We have to get it to 99% pure purity in order to get there But now once we have that in place we can take that gas and wheel it to any of our facilities or anywhere in The the gas grid is served So in terms of our trucks, we mentioned we're running about half of our fleet now Are on cng or cng vehicles? This is a traditional Compressed natural gas vehicle Patrick said it's an identical fuel for the renewable natural gas So we're able to run our fleet entire fleet on on this fuel But basically the way it works for us is our trucks pull up at night They hook up and then in the morning their their tank is full ready to go for the route and We're going to be we're in the process of going to 100% renewable natural gas will be there by 2020 We'll be purchasing the new Cummins Westport ISL G engines and these are are classified by California as a near-zero emissions technology and It basically beats the EPA existing knock standard by about 90% and We're about halfway there and I said we'll be 100% RNG fleet by by 2020 So basically now that we've hit our key Milestones we can continue to add future phases or develop projects with this basic model to increase our organic recycling capacity and gas Protection production. We're grateful that we've been able to provide a solution that contributes to our state's organics recycling challenges And it's really a solution that has so many different linked benefits If you think about it, we're we're dealing with landfill diversion greenhouse gas reduction Renewable fuel production clean fleets Sustainable soils and agriculture to name a few so we're happy to serve as a model for similar projects nationwide And I'd be happy to answer any questions for you. Thank you Thank you Chris. I'm just going to hand it back over to Patrick surface now He's going to wrap things up for us and talk about some of the policy drivers Thanks, Jesse So I wanted to just this will be this will be also just as quick as the earlier part part was here Just to kind of since we are on Capitol Hill I want you to be able to understand some of the main policy drivers that we have for the industry But to kind of give you some context in terms of value We we like the wind and solar industry the renewable energy industry really needs to stick together But we find ourselves comport come force to compare ourselves with the solar and wind industry because In our tax code currently wind and solar for example, I've had this really long term extension of a tax credit that gives them a lot of benefits for monitor for financing their Systems and reducing the capital costs our credit along with the credit for biomass and waste to energy and Hydro power and some geothermal has been expired Basically for the last couple years. It was rectoactively extended and so now it's currently expired from the end of 2017 but they did that when it was already expired So we haven't really been able to use it and the one thing that they would want you to take away We've already talked about the bottom part of this slide, which are all the other non energy benefits Organic material management odor reduction nutrient recycling reduced or negative greenhouse gases Watershed protection more jobs than a lot of other renewable energy technologies because we not only have the construction But then we've got the ongoing operation of these facilities as well and ongoing supply chain activity Related to that ongoing operation, but on top of that don't forget that our systems are producing energy 24-7 only the staffers asked us earlier today. Well when you say you can Supply enough energy for seven point five million homes. What is that seven point filling five million homes a year? Well, no It's seven point five million homes now and for an hour and for a year and for as long as the biogas systems are running They're running and they're producing energy 24-7 now we do have to if you're making electricity for example You do have to change the oil in your engine every once in a while. So that's why Brian for example said that his one megawatt facility instead of making 24 megawatt hours per day He's making 23.5. We've got a 95 percent capacity factor And so when you're looking at the cost of wind and solar We like them. We need wind. We need solar their resource We need it gonna need a variety of resources But don't forget to look at the actual cost that you're gonna need about five point six times more solar Because of the variability you're gonna need about four point three times more wind to get the same amount of actual energy output That a biogas system is providing. So let's when you look at the cost of systems Yes, the capital cost of some of the biogas systems is higher, but it's worth it and then of course if you Don't even care about supporting renewable energy and there certainly our folks on Capitol Hill Don't really care about renewable energy that much. They don't want to have any handouts to the energy industry Well, we've got something for you too because even if you don't care about renewable energy What are we gonna do with the 66 and a half million tons of food waste that we generate each year now? We can reduce a lot of that by just better Utilizing our food waste and better distributed and we should do that and we should work with the new food waste caucus Chared by representatives Ping Green Young to reduce food waste, but food waste is still gonna spoil and That's gonna have to be recycled and unless we started finding ways to eat banana peels and pineapple tops and other things like that That aren't really very edible or not we don't plan for them to be that's gonna have to be recycled too So we got to have a management system to do that We generate 31 billion gallons of wastewater every day and less our population is going to decrease or all of a sudden We stop flushing our toilets. We got to manage that material too and what about all of our animals. So yeah There's a significant vegan interest. I think in this country, but I don't think everyone's gonna go vegan So we're gonna have animals. We're gonna have an animal population this country and we've got eight billion cows chicken turkey and pigs To manage and let's take the dairy cow. For example, did you know that a dairy cow produces 120 pounds of manure a day? So I don't weigh quite 120 pounds. That would be nicer But you know look at the nine million dairy cows that we have in this country that's the population of New Jersey and Everyone of those nine million dairy cows is putting out 120 pounds of manure every single day and that's just the dairy cows That's not even the beef cows like Brian's project or the rest of the agriculture animal industry What are we doing them with that manure? We have so many resources in there that we need to better better manage and then for the agriculture industry We've got lots of nitrogen needs. We've got lots of phosphorus Needs in our fertilizers. Currently we make nitrogen fertilizers from fossil natural gas we mine phosphorus from Florida and other places that creates radioactive waste in the process It's not sustainable and yet we have all these nutrients here already. We just have to recycle them So again 30 13 and a half Thousand new biogas systems 40 billion dollars in capital deployment Lots of short-term construction jobs lots of long-term Jobs, we think it's really it's really worth it for our country and for everything that we really want whether you care about energy or The environment or just creating jobs and economic activity. There's something for everyone so just policy-wise real quick three main things that we would really like farm bill RFS and tax code subjects so for the farm bill we would like a Separate energy title and we would like mandatory funding associated with that We made no secret last week on our feelings about that. We know that that's an uphill battle in the house It's better in the Senate, but we're not there yet in either chamber So energy title separate and mandatory funding associated with it these programs help to get biogas industry Systems growing we're already growing but this accelerates growth and the benefits that come along with it on the RFS for Congress Yeah, the RFS isn't totally perfect but it is the best policy that our industry has right now to accelerate growth and in Congress our messages don't mess with the RFS It's working really well for our industry. It's helping to finance new projects and we need it to continue We would however love for some pressure to be applied to EPA staff to activate the renewable electricity pathway Which exists and it's just not being utilized and that's an EPA staff action that can happen But letters and inquiries from your offices to ask them to activate that pathway may give them the nudge that that we need them to That they need to be able to actually act And then finally on tax we already I already mentioned the lack of parity between basically wind and solar and Fuel cells and some CHP and micro turbines and some geothermal all technologies that we love But it creates a real problem when they have a 30% or 10% tax credit that we don't have Not only does that make it harder for us to compete in the marketplace But when a bank is looking to finance a project They will actually capture a little bit of that tax credit in most projects the way you finance them The bank gets a little bit So if I if you're a banker Do you want to do a project with the technology that has a certain tax credit? And you can get a little extra margin on that project or do you want to go with the technology? That doesn't have the tax credit and you can't get that margin It has nothing to do with this technology It just has to do with the certainty of the tax credit So we need those tax credits to be extended Representative Stefanik in New York introduced 4137 that does that for us it extends that tax credit and By the way that those tax credits for our industry only cover biogas to electricity projects It wouldn't cover a project like Clark's for example. That's going biogas to a non electricity It's going biogas to vehicle fuel or heat. There's a companion There's another bill That's been introduced in the house and the Senate 2853 I believe and Senate bill 988 in the Senate that'll create the same tax credit that we're looking for with 4137 but it will cover the non electricity project So it just covers the biogas industry and these are these are really low-cost items for the biogas industry We're not large yet And this stuff is the stuff is really worth it So if you want to talk about any of those topics We'll be happy to talk with you about it either in the Q&A or otherwise that we can go We can deep dive into all those issues. We love talking about them But we hope that you've had a chance to kind of absorb the benefit the full benefits of biogas We hope you're interested in our industry and and everything that we can do because it does impact you Even at an individual level with what you're doing at home Flesh in your toilet managing your food waste even if you don't own a farm You're probably buying and eating those products You know, this is a circular economy that we can create here. So, thank you very much Thank you Patrick So we just as he said absorbed a lot of information. There's a lot of Different types of systems we can look at there's a lot of different policy drivers But I would like to open it up to you the audience for questions that you might have are there any questions in the room I Have one in the front here and I'm gonna ask that you wait for the microphone because I do know we have people watching online So one right right in the front here Thank you Gentlemen for for being willing to serve first off. I'm curious Chris Your projects was an enormous project and obviously very Costly obviously your your board was was a Forward-looking board and decided to go forward with us But I think some people are would probably look at that price tag and be a little surprised Would you be willing to share how you went about? Getting your financing what that look like That might give give some people some ideas. Sure Let me say right off the bat. I'm not the CFO but it was bond funded and we had a we have a good bond rating and When we did the business case we looked at all the different potential savings and 470 million dollars sounds like a lot and it is Savings was roughly twenty six million dollars a year when you do the math Comes out to a payback period of about 12 to 15 years Which is not bad for a municipal project Especially one where the bulk of the capital goes towards tanks that are gonna last 75 years probably But even that if you're scratching down the numbers the math doesn't work out the do nothing option didn't cost $0 if we didn't build digesters we would have had to rehab our lime stabilization system, which would have cost 175 million dollars so the payback is really 450 Minus hundred or 470 minus 175 so that's 295 divided by like 26 million dollars a year Which comes out simple math to be about 12 12 years? That's the super simple version Sure And I have sort of a follow-up question for you Brian Which is you also mentioned the costs obviously associated with your system and and in talking to farmers I've heard that cost is a barrier. Can you talk about what are some of the barriers to seeing more on farm digesters? And if it's cost or other things certainly the cost is an issue, you know we Took on a incredibly large project for a family for a husband and wife team But we're gonna come out of it and so I guess first of all I can offer that confidence to anybody who's who's looking at it But secondly, there's a number of pieces of advice. I would give going forward. I would work cooperatively with other farmers So if you have a group of let's say pork producers an area Work with some pork producers who want to build one of these centrally so you can utilize the the hog winner streams From several different operations And then not only that you can work with some of the area farmers if you're wanting to grow some of the green energy biomass Crops that will help supplement the energy production for those facilities So I would encourage working cooperatively, you know the ethanol industry did it in Iowa Just the same way the first ethanol plant that was built in Blairstown, Iowa failed miserably But since then they've done a pretty good job of Developing a model very expensive plants, you know Probably put the price tag of your facility to shame on some of these facilities for ethanol plants But they are they are now sustainable They needed help to to start and operate in the early years just like we do but since then they've they've become very sustainable and profitable and have built a model where You were far better off using additional private equity dollars to finance the construction of those rather than debt equity So that would that would be you know one of those bits of advice that I would look for so taking a smaller piece of the pie Pulling in some partners to help build a facility. I think would be one way to help pay for the cost Questions I Wasn't right here bill for Brian. Did you mention that you are? Cogenerating there are and if so, what are you using the heat for? yeah, we do co-generate we have a caterpillar 35 16 gen set and Generate the electricity and sell that to our local power company and then the heat is used to heat our digester tanks We operated a mesophilic temperature range So we have miles and miles of pecsline in our concrete digester tanks those tanks are 24 foot tall 84 85 foot in diameter 970,000 gallons also heat in the floor and then we also have heat in some of our buildings Associated with our digester facility, so we utilize the heat But you know what percentage of heat do we use that we generate gosh? I don't know I'm probably guessing around 30% so we have tremendous heat resources available that we're not using right now There's one in the back corner. I'll leave it back My name is Peter Attinger. I'm with BTS bio energy, so we're totally in the tank in the biogas world We've built 210 of them around the world and are just entering into the US market in particularly in Maryland I'm pretty and love to talk about finance. It's a kind of one of my favoritly weird subjects I'm really very interested in the challenges you have on land application of digest tape because that seems to change on a State-by-state basis and it'd be interested in all of your experiences and how to work that regulatory process through California is usually in the leading edge of the legislative side of things and we did recently about two years ago Just redo all of our through a cal recycle agency Our was called title 14 in California, and that was the composting and included in vessel digestion So that kind of govern the new rules around composting and Digestate and the treatment of and the safe that what they would consider to be the safety levels on that So I would imagine that that's going to be probably a model rolling out the rest of the country But that basically hits a lot of the 503 standards and they use that those standards for Metals and pathogens essentially that those are almost identical But in our particular case we're running at a thermophilic temperature So we did get our pathogen kill done right at the very beginning So if we do want to get our raw material out there, we're actually already kind of state of California approved to get that material Straight out to the market without any any restrictions Not everybody's in that boat, but that's what's going on in California Yeah, this is Chris my advice would be start early and be patient We we have a distribution of marketing permits now in DC Maryland, Virginia Pennsylvania, and we are very close in New Jersey and every state is different Different quirks different different aspects that we had to go through we built relationships with the regulators shared information with it from our inspectors just to build trust and then we're Maybe inordinately patient because it took a really really long time But I you know I didn't begrudge him because this was the first time that anybody had seen a thermally hydrolyzed Biosolids in the US and then nobody really wanted to be the first somebody had to it ended up being Maryland and then other people followed suit so once once we got one it got a little bit easier just start early be patient Good advice and start early be patient. We work with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources on our Facility our animal feedlot is is regulated under the animal feedlot regulations in the state of Iowa So there really is no specific chapter for an anaerobic digestion in the Iowa Code So we're lumped in with animal feed-out regulations. In fact, I have to chuckle every year The DNR comes out and does a site audit for us and kind of tells us where there might be some deficiencies and you know How can we work to address those? You know they they call the biofibers pile manure and I have to chuckle and they of course have no defense But I said that's not manure by the way and they understand But there is nothing in the Iowa Code that's that goes on to describe what it really is So we're actually working now with the DNR and creating our own that new section in the Iowa Code for the management of Liquid effluent as well as our biofibers or solids material that we we generate So we work with the DNR actually we have a pretty good working relationship with the DNR and hopefully can continue to do So and I'll just add because this program wasn't available when you guys started Generating digested and needing to find these markets But the American Biogas Council just last year created a gestate certification program And the purpose of that is to help the customers buying digested to know that the material that they're buying meet certain health and safety Requirements for example, it doesn't have viruses like pathogens in it You don't have heavy metals in it and then it also gives you a third-party verified nutrient profile of the material And so for anyone who's concerned about buying digested or encouraging folks to use digested instead you can say well You should use certified digested by the American Biogas Council and all three of our speakers up here our participants in that program as producers of Certified digested so we're hoping that that will help to really elevate the The trust level for digested because it's not a household name yet like compost and other soil amendments are and once we can develop that Level of trust then the value will really increase and who knows you know Well, we already do have some projects that are producing more revenue from their digested than there are from their energy And I think that's just to tip the iceberg that will continue because soil health drives our farms There is a question in the back yeah Yeah, hi, so this question is mainly for Brian and Clark as the two private enterprises in this when you were Considering doing a biogas system how much of the consideration was offsetting your current costs say your electricity or your heat Versus diversifying your revenue streams by being able to sell natural gas to the pipeline in your case or also You know electricity in your case Really the the offset to cost of electricity was very minimal We're not a Energy hog if you will like a let's say a large dairy where you're running coolers to chill milk Another way product treatment plant. What's that or waste water treatment plant or wastewater treatment plant exactly So so that wasn't a significant cost It was really about you know, how can we maximize and enhance the value of those products we produce? What's the best? way to generate that rate of return from those resources that we are blessed with and At the time it looked like electricity was probably the way the best way to go You know fast forward now to 2018. We obviously have other options available to us In our case being from the waste management industry was really all driven as a material handling issue So we really matched up our technology in this case a high-solid is digester Built-in by German technology exactly to the feedstock. We knew we needed to handle So we have all these customers with all this material that we know we need to keep out of the landfill So we started there and then we found that there were all the other benefits that to go alongside of it Well, we can we can take this material turn it into fuel for our truck fleet and then on and on so we're able to figure out Ways to maximize the the value of every single piece of that recycling stream Which is what really really do in the waste management business. We try to collect all the waste is Efficiently as possible and then find and end markets for a hundred percent of the material to the extent that we can so it was a perfect match for us Maybe just to follow up on that as well So just to demonstrate the math we produce roughly 23 and a half megawatts a day We sell approximately 19 and a half to 20 to our power company So the other three and a half megawatts that we're utilizing are just for parasitic loader and our mixers agitators lights pumps It's a question right here David Biedermann with swan a clerk I have a question for you. How much are? Customers paying to dispose of the food waste at your facility and how does that compare to other disposal options in Southern, California? So the way that we're working that with our contracts is that Basically our our municipal contracts and we have about 50 of them right to give or take They all have an obligation to meet these new Recycling organics recycling other material challenges and so what we do is we come to them and say well we have a solution built for you And it'll cost you let's say anywhere between a couple of dollars per household per month in order to subscribe to the program and that's negotiated within our existing Agreements franchise agreements with the cities and so they can say they will take option a or we could we could say or you Could maybe look at another option. They'd be building your own composting facility Those are really the only two options that are readily available in the market and then generally speaking they our cities find That they say well gosh going through all those headaches and Have everything else that we'll actually just go ahead and have a turnkey solution pay a little bit extra per month So that's kind of how we've been handling it Any further questions? There's one right here right next to the Hi My question is for Chris and Brian in these new facilities how many additional jobs or economic activity I Mean if you could put a dollar value is generated for every dollar invested in this plant and the larger issue is you know in Terms of national security the solar and wind Industry has very cleverly played on this consumer emotional hook You know you can see panels and blades, but unfortunately like biofuels bioenergy. There's no visual visually compelling Hook to you know get consumer acceptance. So how do you see? kind of marketing the made in America Aspect of these biogas systems and so also additionally how do you position? This aspect of decentralizing the energy grid and making rural communities more resilient So how do you pitch that to a congressman? Very good question. I'm not sure I can fully answer it. I'll take a stab We know that as Patrick alluded to Livestock production is going to generate x number of tons per year of waste from 8 billion animals We can we can maximize the value of that by not considering necessarily a waste, but a resource It's a resource dust just like water and air and sun our resources that resources used to produce a couple of forms of renewable energy like in our case electricity and heat and then that resource we can add additional value to it by returning those resources back to our land and Not importing phosphorus and potassium from Canada or Florida We produce our own fertilizer right on our own farms So that's that's a good selling tool in Iowa anyway, and I think probably in the Midwestern or at least Agricultural areas of the country that you don't have to bring in inorganic forms of fertilizer from other parts of the world We can produce our own fertilizer right here and in the process remove all the pathogens and then oh by the way We've got a little renewable energy. We can sell you as well So that's that's one marketing aspect the other thing we're looking at doing is in Iowa. We really are taking a very Conscious approach at water quality. How can we improve water quality? What in the footprint that agriculture leaves on water? And we can a tremendously reduce that footprint through other practices that maybe aren't prevalent right now and Integrating those practices with anaerobic digestion, and that's where we talk about utilization of biomass resources cover crops One of the aha moments here just a few years I'm gonna be 59 this weekend, but it took me almost 57 years or 58 years to realize that When my great-grandparents settled in Iowa in the 1850s There was there were crops growing on that land prairie grass primarily 12 months out of the year So it absorbed all of those nutrients that are in the soil 12 months out of the year And so the nutrient loadings that went into our groundwater was very minimal. That's not true anymore We've gone to a corn soybean rotation. So those crops get harvested in October November. So from November until the following April There's nothing growing on that land now We've decided it's important for us to put something back on that land in the area form of cover crops And that's really what we're trying to grow and the problem is there's a significant cost to farmers to do that It's about 50 bucks an acre to plant a cover crop and Determinate it the next spring so you can plant your following corn or soybean crops rather than killing it with Roundup or some other herbicide Why not chop it stockpile it and feed it to your digester? That's where we think we can also market and position anaerobic digestion and in Midwestern or agricultural areas of the country I just like to add something from an urban perspective too. We are you saw our bloom logo there I mean, it's we're not shying away from the fact that this is a DC water product and this comes from the citizens The good soil better earth tagline Sort of steers the conversation towards green energy and the Populus in DC. I mean, it's a very active environmentally conscious group of young people So they're they're very interested in this message. I've been very pleased and surprised at at what traction that's been getting I Can't believe I didn't have it on one of my slides, but we have this other Graphic that we have it's a toilet with a little electrical receptacle that goes into the side Was it there all right All right, and the tagline for that is you know power from the people Because it and it reminds them that every time they make a contribution to our system They help us make green energy. So we're really tying it back and as a locally sourced Efficient energy because if we use it, you know, there's not gigantic transmission losses if we use it all in DC So we're trying to tie it to local production as well You know if you really the point you made in your presentation about returning water That's cleaner than what you're pulling out of the river. I think it's a win-win. It's a huge marketing opportunity And I'll just add I think that's a really good question How do we make biogas relevant to people power to the people is an awesome way to do it I love that food waste is another way to do that I think that we need to get people to care more about recycling food waste We recycle glass metal paper and plastics a lot of places around the country not everywhere unfortunately, but a lot of People care about recycling glass metal paper and plastics. We look for those blue bins around here But is anyone looking with their leftover food waste when you go down to the cafeteria here where you can put that? It's really bad here in these buildings because it actually says the food waste as Specifically is not supposed to get recycled which is wrong. It's appropriate for this building because you don't have a place to put it But we need we you should be recycling food waste if we get people to care about recycling food waste Then we're gonna get people asking. How do I do that? And there's only two options biogas systems and composting systems and they're gonna work hand-in-hand Composting systems work really well low capital costs low volumes Biogas systems work really well with high volumes and you're gonna have a mix of them in between So every city every place you go you're gonna have you're gonna have a mix in that for recycling We can get people to care about food waste I think we're gonna be getting a lot further further along food waste caucus that was just announced two weeks ago for any of You staffers here if your boss doesn't a member of the food waste caucus, it's bipartisan You should get them to sign up. We get people to care about that. I think they'll ask the right questions to get around to biogas Great question. There's another question in front here Thanks, so We've been spending the last two days going around talking to people Well, Chris you've been spared this but the ABC has been going around and mostly we've been trying to reach out across the aisle to talk To people who are not You know naturally always drawn to renewable energy issues or to sustainability issues and try to find common ground with them But the other challenge that I find working in the especially in the animal waste to energy sector and working in commercial scale agriculture is that there are people who are in the progressive community who are critical sometimes of Biogas as a solution and especially with the way that we work cooperatively with commercial scale agriculture the way we address the You know the demands that are getting placed on the environment by Commercial scale agriculture and you made a quick nod to it in one of the slides Patrick where you said look not everyone is Going to become a vegan, you know to address our you know food supply issues that are looming in the future I can assure you that aside from the people who are already vegans. No one is going to do that, right? So the question is You know is there any evidence and I'm hoping the answer here? No, is there any evidence that increased biogas projects are going to somehow lead to an explosion of additional Commercial scale agriculture or that it is somehow going to relieve us of our sense of responsibility To continue to make our food supply system and our waste management systems more and more sustainable And I know part of that is can you speak to how the ABC also? Works on those issues as well I can assure you the answer is no What what Lisa and I looked at and our family when we build our facility is we we knew that we were going to have to Achieve some economies of scale I mean we used to have a three to four hundred head beef cattle feedlot in an open lot where the manure ran downhill And eventually made its way to a creek river or stream. That's the way beef cattle production Developed in the United States and as and so what we've believed was that that's wrong We want to contain that manure and and utilize that resource in our facility. So that led us to the Concept of anaerobic digestion. I toured some facilities in Nebraska that had already implemented that we went to Germany and saw it in action And it only gave us reinforcement that you can take an existing facility And that's really what we had because we built two new cattle barns in 2011 and 2012 and then build our digester and Then kept captured the beneficial aspects of livestock production with that anaerobic digester There's a number of livestock operations in the United States that can then can capitalize on AD systems We're starting to see that now with some major Pork processing companies in the United States who are looking to biogas production in Missouri North Carolina They're going to be looking at it very seriously obviously And I think I was going to be right behind that with some of those larger pork processing Facilities and Integrators to go to their producers say I think we need to do something different with the way we handle and manage our livestock waste And I think that's where we'll improve upon, you know, we didn't grow up as farmers saying gosh I'd like to raise more cattle than anybody else It's once you achieve a level that you feel comfortable managing now What can we do to better this system? And that's where AD comes in and helps us achieve that goal I'm glad you asked the question about about large large farms and are we going to encourage more of them to be created I'm glad to hear Brian say what what I also believe which is no We're not going to be encouraging a lot of a lot of larger farms by having biogas systems and part of the reason that they that there are biogas systems on large farms right now is they've had the biggest problems to deal with and So they have to do something and a biogas system makes a lot of sense so you put biogas systems first in the place places where they have the biggest problems solve those problems and then the other folks will We'll catch on one of the key things that I think biogas systems will help to encourage family farms in the smaller farms Is that it creates an additional revenue stream and not only is that additional revenue stream important because it's additional revenue But as commodity prices go up and down now you've got something else That's maybe helping your operation to be much more stable and as we can and it helps to create your efficiency of your entire Closed loop the cycle of carbon that Chris described in the cycle of making sure those nutrients get recycled and put back onto your fields And you know that's material that you have to manage and these biogas systems can help the small and medium farms Size farms also to become much more efficient. I just have to apply the technology a little bit differently We've got companies that specialize in small and medium sized farms We've got companies that specialize in large farms and thankfully there's a place for both Great question. Are there any further questions? We have a few more minutes One over here Dave Weber and Genesis industrial group. I'm gonna ask a leading question so isn't it true then if the goal is that we want to Enable small and you know medium-sized farms to thrive that the energy title project programs of The farm bill are necessary because they enable through small grants to leverage Additional capital out there that can can can make it possible for smaller families smaller farms to be able to You know to to build the facilities that help improve the environmental You know Absolutely those energy title programs are essential to to the enhancement of any livestock AD system that you might want to consider You know we we received the beneficial aspects of those grant programs B cap Equip reap are all beneficial to our operation or have been beneficial We want to make sure those resources are available to other Projects that come along in Iowa or other parts of the United States to to grow the industry Well, I think that's a great point to wrap up on that these programs in the farm bill are really critical in the energy title It's very salient on the hill today, and I just want to thank our speakers here I hope you really learn something about kind of how we can really utilize these waste as a resource how we can As Patrick said kind of start beginning to create a circular economy because these waste are going to be here whether or not we Decide to utilize them. So please join me in thanking our speakers