- Pipeline giant also invests $80 million in partner Divert
- Program could offset 400,000 metric tons of emissions a year
According to Bloomberg article published on March 1, 2023, Enbridge Inc. is committing as much as $1 billion to building plants that turn discarded food into renewable natural gas as part of a pledge to reduce emissions and provide customers with greener products.
North America’s largest pipeline company also is investing $80 million in Divert Inc., the company that created the waste-to-gas technology that will be used in the plants, according to a release on Wednesday. Current investor Ara Partners is leading a group that’s investing an additional $20 million.
Enbridge would generate a return from the facilities and the gas they’d produce while also making progress on a goal of reducing its emissions intensity 35% by 2030. The partnership with Divert could offset 400,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions a year, according to the statement.
“It’s a perfect drop-in fuel to our existing infrastructure that offers that lower, or negative carbon-intensity fuel for our customers and for us,” Caitlin Tessin, vice president of strategy and market innovation at Enbridge, said in an interview.
Divert is looking to build facilities within 100 miles of 80% of the US population in the next eight years, and plants also will be considered for Canada. Large-scale anaerobic digesters can cost $50 million to $100 million to build, Divert estimates.
Enbridge has a lower level of emissions per revenue than more than half of its peers in the oil and gas midstream industry, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Emissions from the company’s own operations — known as scope 1 and 2 emissions — have been relatively stable from 2019 to 2021, according to the data.
