What’s all the fuss about biogas? Two companies want to build facilities that would harvest natural gas from chicken waste to southern Delaware. CleanBay Renewables aims to build a plant south of Georgetown, and Bioengergy Devco proposes a similar site south of Seaford.
The idea that biogas is better for the environment is based on the idea of recycling and avoiding fossil-derived natural gas. Stephanie Lansing, a University of Maryland professor who studies bioenergy and renewable products, said anaerobic digesters have a circular economy, reusing nutrients from farming and putting them back into making food, while at the same time producing methane that did not come from fossil fuels. Farmers also do not have to use synthetic fertilizers, which are created using fossil fuels.