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JBS USA has entered into a partnership with GreenGasUSA to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) at various JBS beef and poultry processing facilities across the US.

In a bid to address GHG emissions, while also empowering its value chain, JBS will adopt circular economy technologies to repurpose waste streams into renewable energy.

The partnership, which builds on JBS’s existing methane capture capabilities, will see GreenGasUSA install on-site gas upgrading systems at multiple JBS facilities. Biogas collected from the meat processor’s wastewater streams will be purified into pipeline-quality RNG, allowing end users to displace fossil fuel usage.

GreenGasUSA will initially install the technology at JBS facilities in Grand Island, Nebraska, and Hyrum, Utah; and the Pilgrim’s Sumter, South Carolina, facility.

This collaboration is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at these facilities while improving wastewater operations and local air and water quality, supporting the renewable energy market through the distribution of RNG.

The project at Pilgrim’s Sumter, South Carolina, facility is scheduled to be completed in early 2025, while the Grand Island and Hyrum projects are slated for completion at the end of 2025.

According to JBS, inserting this RNG into existing energy pipelines will displace the GHG emissions equivalent to 60 million miles driven by a car, or 26 million pounds of coal burned, annually.

Wesley Batista Filho, CEO of JBS Foods USA, said: “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. 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.”

Marc Fetten, CEO and founder of GreenGasUSA, commented: “GreenGas is deeply committed to developing solutions that address GHG emissions in the most difficult-to-decarbonise industries. 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.”