Organic Waste Digestion Project Protocol Avoiding Methane Emissions from Anaerobic Digestion of Food Waste and/or Agro-Industrial Wastewater Version 1.0 October 7, 2009 Organic Waste Digestion Project Protocol Version 1.0, October 2009 Acknowledgements Staff Syd Partridge Climate Action Reserve Derik Broekhoff Climate Action Reserve Tim Kidman Climate Action Reserve Nancy Kong Climate Action Reserve Heather Raven Climate Action Reserve Rachel Tornek Climate Action Reserve Workgroup Marcia Gowen Trump Atmosclear Keith Driver Blue Source Canada Nick Lapis Californians Against Waste Pierre Loots Cantor CO2e Kevin Eslinger California Air Resources Board Shelby Livingston California Air Resources Board Jack Macy City and County of San Francisco Rowena Romano City of Los Angeles Ronald Lew California Integrated Waste Management Board Rob Janzen Climate Check Paul Relis CR&R Inc. Stephanie Cheng East Bay Municipal Utility District Jay Wintergreen First Environment Adam Penque Greenhouse Gas Services, LLC. Juliette Bohn Humboldt Waste Management Authority Michael Hvisdos Microgy, Inc. Rachel Oster Recology, Inc. Derek Markolf Ryerson, Master and Associates, Inc. Peter Freed Terra Pass Charles Kennedy Tetra Tech Sally Brown University of Washington Chuck White Waste Management Paul Sousa Western United Dairymen Organic Waste Digestion Project Protocol Version 1.0, October 2009 Table of Contents Abbreviations and Acronyms ........................................................................................................1 1 Introduction ................................................................................................................2 2 The GHG Reduction Project ......................................................................................3 2.1 Project definition.........................................................................................................3 2.2 The Project Developer ...............................................................................................3 3 Eligibility Rules ...........................................................................................................5 3.1 Location......................................................................................................................5 3.2 Project Start Date.......................................................................................................5 3.3 Project Crediting Period .............................................................................................6 3.4 Anaerobic Baseline Conditions ..................................................................................6 3.5 Additionality................................................................................................................6 3.5.1 The Performance Standard Test................................................................................7 3.5.2 The Legal Requirement Test......................................................................................8 3.6 Regulatory Compliance............................................................................................10 4 The GHG Assessment Boundary.............................................................................11 5 Quantifying GHG Emission Reductions ...................................................................18 5.1 Quantifying Baseline Emissions...............................................................................19 5.1.1 Baseline Emissions from Eligible Food Waste Streams (SSR 5).............................20 5.1.2 Baseline Emissions from Eligible Agro-industrial Wastewater Streams (SSR 7).....25 5.1.3 Baseline Emissions from Manure Treatment Systems (SSR 6)...............................27 5.2 Quantifying Project Emissions .................................................................................28 5.2.1 Project CO2 Emissions from On-Site Fossil Fuel Combustion and Grid Delivered Electricity (SSRs 4, 9, 14, 16, 18) ............................................................................29 5.2.2 Project Emissions from the Biogas Control System (SSRs 10,11,12,13,15) ...........30 5.2.3 Project Methane Emissions from Liquid Digester Effluent Storage and Treatment (SSR 17) ..................................................................................................................33 5.2.4 Project Emissions from Aerobic Treatment of Digestate (SSR 18)..........................34 5.2.5 Project Emissions from Anaerobic Disposal of Digestate produced in the digestion process (SSR 18).....................................................................................................36 5.2.6 Project Emissions from Manure Treatment Systems (SSR 6) .................................36 5.3 Calculating the Total Quantity of Methane Destroyed by the Project.......................37 6 Project Monitoring ....................................................................................................38 6.1 Organic Waste and Wastewater Monitoring Requirements .....................................38 6.1.1 Food Waste Monitoring ............................................................................................38 6.1.2 Agro-Industrial Wastewater Monitoring ....................................................................39 6.1.3 Digester Effluent and Digestate Monitoring..............................................................40 6.2 Biogas Control System Monitoring...........................................................................40 6.2.1 Biogas Measurement Instrument QA/QC.................................................................42 6.2.2 Missing Data ............................................................................................................43 6.3 Monitoring Parameters.............................................................................................43 7 Reporting Parameters ..............................................................................................49 7.1 Project Submittal Documentation.............................................................................49 7.2 Record Keeping .......................................................................................................49 7.3 Reporting Period & Verification Cycle ......................................................................50 8 Verification Guidance ...............................................................................................51 8.1 Standard of Verification............................................................................................51 8.2 Monitoring Plan ........................................................................................................51 8.3 Verifying Project Eligibility ........................................................................................51 Organic Waste Digestion Project Protocol Version 1.0, October 2009 8.4 Core Verification Activities .......................................................................................52 8.5 OWD Verification Items............................................................................................53 8.5.1 Project Eligibility and CRT Issuance ........................................................................53 8.5.2 Quantification ...........................................................................................................54 8.5.3 Risk Assessment......................................................................................................56 8.6 Completing Verification ............................................................................................56 9 Glossary of Terms....................................................................................................57 10 References...............................................................................................................61 Appendix A Associated Environmental Impacts .....................................................................63 Appendix B Data Lookup Tables ............................................................................................64 Appendix C Summary of the Performance Standard Paper ...................................................70 C.1. Selected Waste Generating Industries.....................................................................70 C.2. Organic Waste Generation and Management and OWD Performance Standard Options 72 C.3. Regulatory Conditions and Regulatory Additionality Recommendations .................76 C.4. Digestion Economics................................................................................................76 Appendix D Data Substitution .................................................................................................79 Organic Waste Digestion Project Protocol Version 1.0, October 2009 List of Tables Table 4.1. Description of all Sources, Sinks, and Reservoirs. ....................................................13 Table 5.1. Combined methane and nitrous oxide emission factors for aerobic treatment of digestate. ....................................................................................................................................35 Table 6.1. Organic waste digestion project monitoring parameters...........................................43 Table 8.1. Summary of eligibility criteria for an organic waste digestion project.........................52 Table 8.2. Eligibility verification items. ........................................................................................54