| Abstract: | Renewable fleet fuel is a choice for cities' sustainable transportation systems. Composed primarily of methane, biogas can be cleaned and upgraded to use in natural gas vehicles or burned to generate electricity for electric vehicles. Wastewater treatment plants already have anaerobic digesters that convert sewage sludge to biogas. Co-digesting food and flora (yard) waste at these digesters can boost biogas production for fleet fuel and free up landfill space. The abundance of food and yard waste in landfills is of concern to the U.S. EPA. The comprehensive project goal was to facilitate food and yard waste conversion to vehicle fuel by helping interested cities choose among existing digesters for producing vehicle fuel and quantify and calculate payback time for capital investments. The Food/Flora Waste to Fleet Fuel Framework was developed, including: Tools for input data collection, a cost optimization model, a Food/Flora-Waste-to Fleet Fuel Model, and a City Guidebook. As output, an Excel model was developed, which can be used in conjunction with GIS and limited user inputs, to estimate the lowest optimized cost of converting food/yard waste via AD to fleet fuel. The City Guidebook will help interested cities with rules and regulations. |