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About 100 miles east of San Francisco, a company is injecting gas made from food waste into PG&E's natural gas pipeline, the companies tell Axios.

Why it matters: It's a first-of-a-kind partnership to create a circular system around unused food and utility natural gas infrastructure.

Zoom in: Divert, a food waste management company, says its first facility that can turn unsold food products into renewable natural gas in Turlock, Calif., has recently begun operating.

The plant is processing at a rate of 60,000 tons of unsold food products per year, with a plan to ramp up to 100,000 tons annually over the next month and a half, said Divert CEO and co-founder Ryan Begin.

The food, which is coming from grocery stores like Safeway and Albertsons, will be able to generate 650 MMBtu per day of renewable natural gas that Divert is injecting into PG&E's gas line.

That's a relatively small amount compared to PG&E's total natural gas capacity but a major step for a unique system.

How it works: There's a growing ecosystem of companies using what are called anaerobic digesters to capture the energy from food waste.

Anaerobic digesters use microbes to break down organic matter in an oxygen-free environment. The microbes "eat" the waste and produce biogas that can be cleaned up and used to power vehicles or industrial facilities.

Digesters have been around for decades and are now low-cost and reliable enough to be deployed at a large scale.

Catch up quick: Divert, based in West Concord, Mass., started building the Turlock facility in April 2023.

The company secured $63 million in bonds issued through the California Public Finance Authority to help build the facility.

Divert also raised $1.1 billion in financing last March, including $100 million in equity and $1 billion in structured project finance.

The company has 14 facilities operating across the U.S. and plans to operate 30 facilities by 2031.

The intrigue: PG&E is eager to boost the amount of renewable natural gas in its pipeline.

Last month the utility opened its first landfill-to-RNG project in Pittsburg, Calif.

What's next: Divert is in the process of ramping up the anaerobic digesters at Turlock to accommodate all of the planned food waste.

"It's a living, breathing process. We have to adapt to the biology," says Begin.

Editor's note: This story has been corrected after the company updated information it had confirmed. The Turlock facility will generate 650 MMBtu per day (not in total); the company's 14 facilities are operating (they are not under development); and the 225,000 MMBtu of renewable natural gas in PG&E's system was removed. That is the amount the Turlock facility can produce annually (not the total in PG&E's system).

Exclusive: PG&E taps food waste for gas line

It's a first-of-a-kind partnership to create a circular system.

Divert's plant in Turlock, Calif. that can turn food waste into renewable natural gas for PG&E's pipeline

Divert's facility in Turlock, Calif., can convert food waste into renewable natural gas that's then injected into PG&E's pipeline. Photo: Courtesy of Divert

Climate tech

About 100 miles east of San Francisco, a company is injecting gas made from food waste into PG&amp;E&#x27;s natural gas pipeline, the companies tell Axios.Why it matters: It&#x27;s a first-of-a-kind partnership to create a circular system around unused food and utility natural gas infrastructure.

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Exclusive: PG&E taps food waste for gas line

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