Waga Energy to upgrade landfill gas to RNG at OCI Global’s Texas facility

In Texas, OCI Global has entered into a long-term agreement with Waga Energy to upgrade landfill gas to RNG at the City of Beaumont Landfill in Texas.

Since 2010, OCI Global has been part of the Beaumont community. The company is currently building Texas Blue Clean Ammonia – its new low carbon ammonia facility due to start production in early 2025 – nearby, and this project with Waga Energy and the City of Beaumont is the latest example of OCI’s commitment towards the City and Golden Triangle region.

OCI Global has a strategic focus on decarbonization and this initiative, which will support increased production of green methanol, is further evidence of action towards that goal. OCI Global will install a gas collection system on the City of Beaumont Landfill to recover the landfill gas spontaneously produced by organic waste. This gas will be upgraded into RNG through a WAGABOX® unit installed at the City of Beaumont Landfill, and then injected into the nearby gas infrastructure. The project will create more than 20 jobs during construction, adding to the more than 300 people already employed by OCI in the area, and will generate royalty revenues for the City of Beaumont once in operation.

As part of this agreement, OCI Global will own the RNG produced, while Waga Energy will build, own, operate and maintain the WAGABOX® unit through a gas upgrading service contract. The first of its kind in the United States, Waga Energy expects this business model to be replicated to address numerous landfills with the potential to produce RNG.

The facility is expected to be commissioned in 2025 and would avoid up to 27,440 tons of CO2eq emissions annually, equivalent to cutting emissions from 2.8 million gallons of gasoline per year based on the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) calculation methodology. As well as reducing carbon dioxide equivalent emissions, obtaining biogas from landfill has the benefit of using methane – which over a 20-year period, has a global warming potential that is 84 times more potent than carbon dioxide – that would otherwise escape into the atmosphere.  A key pillar for the energy transition, RNG is a local, renewable energy source that can substitute fossil natural gas.