Smithfield Renewables expands manure to energy projects

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2018

In Virginia, Smithfield Foods, Inc. announced the nationwide expansion of Smithfield Renewables and a set of innovative projects designed to help meet its goal to reduce the company’s greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent by 2025, which it set in concert with the Environmental Defense Fund.

As part of the expansion of Smithfield Renewables, Smithfield is implementing “manure-to-energy” projects across 90 percent of Smithfield’s hog finishing spaces in North Carolina and Utah, and nearly all Smithfield’s hog finishing spaces in Missouri over the next ten years. This timeline will aid the company in achieving – and exceeding – its 25 by ’25 commitment.

Smithfield will convert existing anaerobic treatment lagoons to covered digesters or construct new covered digesters to capture biogas, which will be transported to central processing facilities to be converted into renewable natural gas in North Carolina, Missouri, and Utah. Other new programs target GHG reductions and bolster sustainability efforts systemwide.