August 11th marks the 10th anniversary of RAE and Smithfield meeting in Princeton, MO to discuss the possibility of capturing their methane and flaring it for carbon credits as the first step on the long road that has led us to where we are today. The California market for LCFS did not exist at the time and the DOE was still intent on focusing on the drop in fuel from second-generation ethanol. The D3 RIN from animal manure did not exist until 2015.
Looking back now after having completed the last two of the eight farms, seven months ahead of schedule and within our $150mm budget, it is truly an amazing accomplishment.
The cooperation between RAE and the support from the R&A team to complete the design, manufacturing, construction, and startup of eight Missouri projects 800,000 dekatherms under the management of our local operations team is amazing in itself.
While working on these projects, that same team also completed the Greenfield project – 26 lagoons and an SCFM gas purification system in Milford, UT that will contribute another 250,000 dekatherms in the coming years. Through perseverance, persistence and patience, RAE and Element Markets navigated the pathways for swine manure with CARB and the EPA to receive the lowest CI scores in the swine industry. We lead the way to improve not only the environmental footprint but also to diversify the income for the industry and show them a blueprint of how they can turn problems into opportunities.
Those successful endeavors led to new projects in Texas, Arizona, Virginia, North Carolina, Colorado and Iowa that will rapidly move RAE and Roeslein & Associates into a leadership role in this industry. Having developed new gas purification technology (that can range from as little as 250scfm to over 1000scfm), we can now address most opportunities with a project to scale that provides the return investors need to make them both environmentally sound, and economically viable.
Thanks to the dedication and cooperation of all our teams, the One Roeslein approach has catapulted our companies into an industry that is growing tremendously – not only in the US, but around the world. This aligns with our goals as a business to make an impact and provide purpose for the environment, people and wildlife. I would like to thank every single member of our team for the role they played in accomplishing these great achievements. The next ten years should prove to be even more challenging as we continue to face material shortages, price escalations, environmental considerations, potential human resource scarcity and competition.
There is a growing awareness of the environmental challenges the world is facing while trying to provide energy, food and economic justice to a growing population.
We are moving forward with a Horizon 2 project in Iowa that hopes to demonstrate the environmental benefits of using prairie and cover crop biomass as a renewable energy pathway to solving many of those challenges. We will once again have to pioneer a pathway through CARB and the EPA to make a major impact on how we view land as an asset that provides agricultural commodities and ecological services, while also providing energy. These obstacles will not be easy to maneuver but our passion to make a major impact on the world will carry us through the dark. Thank you again to Smithfield for their trust and cooperation, all our new customers who have put their trust in RAE and R&A, and to all the people that have made this possible.
Sincerely,
Rudi Roeslein