Dominion Energy and Smithfield Foods plan to spend $250 million over the next few years to capture methane emissions from hog farms and convert them into energy resources.

Initial capture projects by the venture known as Align Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) will be in North Carolina, Virginia and Utah.

The projects will capture and process methane from clusters of Smithfield's company-owned and contract hog farms. Source: National Park ServiceRenewable natural gas is produced from methane generated from hog or dairy farms, landfills, wastewater treatment plants and food processing facilities. It can be stored and delivered to homes and businesses through existing natural gas infrastructure.

Using anaerobic digestion technology, the projects will capture and process methane from clusters of Smithfield's company-owned and contract hog farms. Once collected at the farms, the natural gas will then be transported to a central conditioning facility where it will be converted into natural gas.

The companies said that because methane is at least 25 times more potent than CO₂ as a greenhouse gas, reducing methane can have a more dramatic impact on the environment than other carbon reduction initiatives.

From Pilot to Scale-Up

Smithfield was involved in a pilot project known as Optima KV. The pilot is a three-farm, five-digester project that gathers multiple biogas streams at a common refinery for injection into the local natural gas pipeline. The renewable natural gas is then transported via the pipeline to a utility-owned and operated power plant.

The new joint venture will expand the Optima KV program to two larger farm clusters in Duplin and Sampson counties, North Carolina; Waverly, Virginia; and Milford, Utah. Construction of these facilities is expected to begin in late 2018 with the first projects scheduled to be in service in late 2019.

Farmers who participate in the program will be paid for the energy their farms produce through long-term contracts.

Dominion Energy serves nearly six million customers in 19 states. It owns $80 billion of assets providing electric generation, transmission and distribution, as well as natural gas storage, transmission, distribution, and import/export services.

Smithfield Foods is a $15 billion company that is one of the world's largest pork processors and producers.