The Treasure Coast’s first attempt at turning byproduct landfill gas into renewable natural gas is getting underway in western Indian River County with the scheduled groundbreaking on a $40 million Nopetro Energy plant this week.
The landfill-to-gas-renewable natural gas (RNG) production facility is a public-private partnership of Miami-based Nopetro Energy and the Indian River County Solid Waste Disposal District. Scheduled to become operational in early 2025, the project will create 40 new construction jobs, plus more opportunities in plant operations.
The Nopetro-financed plant will initially produce 3 million gallons of RNG a year, displacing 30,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to eliminating emissions from 4,300 passenger cars.
The natural gas will be used in homes, fleets and other applications, with the landfill byproduct expected to supply 80 percent of Indian River County’s annual natural gas demand. In exchange for capturing and converting landfill gas into RNG, Indian River County hopes to generate $200,000 to $400,000 in annual revenue – plus renewable energy credits.
“Indian River County has always been proactive and innovative,” said Himanshu H. Mehta, longtime managing director of the Indian River County Solid Waste Disposal District.
Since 2004, the IRC landfill has had a voluntary system in place for collecting primarily methane gas from the landfill. It was converted to CO2 and sold as boiler fuel to New Planet Energy until the facility closed and the county went back to flaring the gas. In the production of RNG, the flared gas is captured and cleaned, preventing it from entering the atmosphere.
RNG, a biogas and the lowest carbon alternative fuel will be produced from the captured flared gas and the removal of methane gas from the Indian River County landfill. It will be purified to meet certain criteria before it is injected into the Florida City Gas Pipeline for distribution to customers.
“The idea is getting beyond petroleum fuel,” Mehta said.
Although the company distributes natural gas at its stations in Florida, the Indian River County site will be Nopetro’s first RNG facility in Florida.
“We will vertically integrate the supply. Today, we distribute, but now we will be producing it ourselves,” said Jorge Herrera, CEO and co-founder of NoPetro. He added that the gas is substantially cleaner and can save 50 percent over diesel fuel.
In late 2021, the Indian River Eco District (IRED) partnered with Nopetro to plan and design the plant near the Indian River County Landfill. “It’s a great program for the environment and a great program for our residents as well,” Mehta said. Indian River County will have the second RNG facility in Florida. The first opened in 2023 at the New River Landfill in Raiford.
According to Mehta and Herrera, building another facility, a CNG plant, may be a future IRC partnership project. The gas is used for medium-to-heavy-duty vehicles such as garbage trucks and buses. Waste Management uses CNG vehicles, and CNG is used in India, where compressed gas is used increasingly. During a recent trip there, Mehta rode in taxis fueled with CNG.
Founded in 2007, Nopetro operates distribution centers where RNG is taken out of the pipeline and compressed into medium – and heavy-duty vehicles and buses. It supplies natural gas for Waste Management, Amazon, the Central Florida Regional Transportation Authority (LYNX), and others.
Nopetro’s six-acre facility in Central Florida with five CNG dispensers has the capacity to distribute 40 gallons per minute. The distribution center includes a private station for LYNX and a second facility open to the public at large. More than 150 clean CNG buses operate throughout the Central Florida region.
