Feasibility Study for a BioCO2 and Renewable Natural Gas Anaerobic Digester Upgrading Plant

GeospatialYakima Chief Hops (YCH) is a hop processing company with facilities in Yakima andSunnyside WA. The hop extract process requires a steady input of food-grade COwhich has2 seen inconsistent supply over the last few years. This project will study the feasibility ofconstructing an anaerobic digester to create food-grade CO (here called bioCO ) and renewable2 2 natural gas (RNG) using post-harvest hop residue and other available waste streams such asforest by-products and cow manure as feedstock. The novelty of this project is three-fold: 1)post-harvest hop residue has never been studied as a potential feedstock to our knowledge 2) wewill utilize a pretreatment technology that makes lignocellulosic material more bioavailable fordegradation and 3) most anaerobic digesters create natural gas for energy or heat; in this projectwe will create food-grade bioCO along with RNG.The bioCO and RNG biofuel created from2 2 agriculture and forest by-products is directly aligned with the USDA program priorities ofagriculturally related manufacturing technology and alternative and renewable energy becausethe feedstocks to be used are byproducts of commercial harvesting; both bioCO and RNG will2 be created using novel manufacturing technology; and both will be sold commercially to replaceproducts that are traditionally created using fossil fuels.The main technical objectives are to: 1) determine the volume of bioCO and RNG created2 from various feedstock mix designs 2) determine the annual availability volume and timing ofpotential agriculture and forest feedstocks within the region and 3) determine the estimatedrevenue from a range of theoretical bioCO and RNG volumes created relative to costs. We will2 work with a private lab to perform lab analysis of feedstock samples. We will then meet withlocal hop and dairy farmers and Yakama Forest Products a Native American-owned sawmill todetermine correlations between total volume of feedstock and acres grown head of cattle andnumber of slash piles respectively along with timing of feedstock availability. We will alsowork with feedstock providers to determine the approximate cost for each feedstock type.Finally we will select a range of increasing theoretical bioCO and RNG volumes and determine2 the cost to procure feedstock to meet each volume demand. We will also calculate theapproximate cost of constructing and operating a facility at each volume size as well as potentialrevenue from the volumes based on the present cost for RNG Low Carbon Fuel Standard creditsfrom selling to California and Oregon and Renewable Identification Numbers (RINs) from theEPA for creating biofuel.The anticipated results of the study will identify the minimum amount of feedstock requiredto create a volume of bioCO and RNG that will provide for sustained YCH consumption and2 profitability. It will also illuminate the types and volumes of feedstock that are most economicalfor the project.There is significant commercial opportunity for RNG in the regional marketplaceas more states and the federal government push toward cleaner transportation fuels andgreenhouse gas emission reductions. BioCO should have a strong local market for the amount2 that is produced over the required inhouse demand hop extract production.