Organic waste management (i.e. composting and anaerobic digestion) represent a key opportunity for achieving the reduction of short-lived climate pollutants from the municipal solid waste sector. Planning and developing such projects requires a detailed understanding of the costs involved in constructing and operating organic waste management facilities.

OrganEcs is a tool for estimating the costs associated with an organic waste management project. It provides planning-level assistance to local governments, waste professionals, policymakers, facility operators, and project developers to help them make financial decisions about their potential organic waste management projects.

OrganEcs was developed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the auspices of the Global Methane Initiative and in support of the Climate and Clean Air Coalition. 

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, on behalf of the Global Methane Initiative (GMI), developed the Anaerobic Digestion (AD) Screening Tool to assist stakeholders in assessing the potential feasibility of an AD project.

The AD Screening Tool enables users to conduct pre-feasibility analyses to evaluate AD opportunities for a variety of feedstocks, including organic municipal solid waste, livestock manure, agricultural residues, and wastewater. The tool generates the following outputs:

• Annual biogas and digestate production
• Project methane emission reductions
• Potential end uses of biogas, including estimates for electricity production, natural gas production, cooking gas potential, and home heating potential

This tool is intended to help project developers, government agencies, financial institutions, and other stakeholders conduct an initial screening assessment of the technical and financial feasibility of proposed AD projects.

Tutorials

Estimating Biogas Production

Under the auspices of GMI, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has developed a report on the Market Opportunities for Anaerobic Digestion of Livestock and Agro-Industrial Wastes in India to help inform project developers, policymakers, and other interested stakeholders about the potential for biogas capture and use in India. The report covers:

• Uses of biogas and digestate;
• Current biogas policies and incentives in India;
• Biogas production potential from India’s largest agricultural production industries, including:
  • Dairy
  • Milk processing
  • Poultry
  • Sugarcane processing
  • Distillery
  • Fruit and vegetable processing
  • Cornstarch production
  • Tapioca production
  • Crop residues;
• Technology options for anaerobic digestion in India; and
• Business models and case studies from India, Asia, and the United States.

Mitigating post-harvest food loss can result in economic benefits for farmers, increase food security, and reduce methane emissions from organic waste. Each year, an estimated 30 percent of fruits and vegetables produced in India are lost or wasted despite the country ranking 94th out of 100 on the 2020 Global Hunger Index (HLPE, 2014; Agarwal et al., 2021). Almost half of post-harvest food losses in India are attributed to the lack of a reliable cold chain, the integrated network of refrigerated storage facilities, transportation, and merchandising technologies that maintain food quality moving from harvest to the consumer (Peters et al., 2019). Cold-chain technologies are energy intensive and typically powered by fossil fuels. In recent years, there has been a focus on clean energy powered cold-chain solutions, including renewable energy powered cold storage facilities that store commodities after harvest.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) conducted a financial pre-feasibility assessment for direct biogas-powered cold storage facilities in Maharashtra, India. EPA used the Global Methane Initiative’s (GMI) Organics Economics (OrganEcs) and Anaerobic Digestion Screening Tool to assess an anaerobic digestion system processing livestock manure into biogas, which is then used by an absorption cooling technology to generate off-grid cold storage without electricity. Data collected from farmers in Maharashtra included the potential crops available for cold storage and commodity prices. Project developers and technical experts provided data on the facility capital and operating costs, as well as sale prices for biogas, digestate, and cold storage fees.