Deadline: 7-Oct-21
The Environment Protection Agency is seeking applications for Supporting Anarobic Digestion in Communities.
This notice announces the availability of funds and solicits applications that will demonstrate means of accelerating the development of new or enhance/increase existing anaerobic digestion capacity and infrastructure in the United States from food waste.
This funding announcement supports the priorities detailed in President Biden’s Executive Order 13985 titled Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government and Executive Order 14008 titled Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad.
Anaerobic digestion (AD) is the natural process in which microorganisms break down organic (plant and animal) materials.
Food waste diverted from landfills and incinerators can be managed at AD facilities. The AD process generates renewable energy (biogas) and a product that can improve soil health (digestate).
Food waste AD reduces landfill methane emissions. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas 28 to 36 times more effective than CO2 at trapping heat in the atmosphere over a 100-year period.
The following materials are generally considered “organic” and can be processed in a digester:
- Animal manure;
- Food scraps;
- Fats, oils, and greases;
- Industrial organic residuals; and
- Sewage sludge (biosolids).
Objectives
All applications must achieve one or more of the following objectives:
- Develop new or expand existing AD capacity for processing food waste.
- Demonstrate solutions and/or approaches for increasing food waste AD utilization that can be replicated by other communities, governments, or other entities.
- Support state, Tribal, and/or local government programs that seek to use AD to increase their food waste diversion rates.
Funding Information
- EPA anticipates awarding approximately one to two grants per EPA region in amounts ranging from $50,000 – $200,000 of federal funding per award, subject to availability of funds and the quality of the eligible applications received.
- Awards will range from $50,000-$200,000 of federal funding.
Outcomes
Projects to be funded under this announcement should demonstrate how they will produce at least one of the following outcomes:
- Increased resources and technical assistance through education, outreach, and training to individuals and/or businesses on AD;
- Advances in AD technology through demonstration projects;
- Increased public and/or business understanding of AD opportunities and benefits;
- Improved capacity of businesses and/or facilities to use existing AD facility capacity through efficiencies achieved through technical assistance and training;
- Increased capacity of landfill(s) as a result of organics being directed to AD facility;
- Improved quality of feedstock for existing AD facility capacity;
- Measurable improvements to environment and/or ecosystem conditions related to AD operations for air, water, and/or waste;
- Increase in energy conserved or produced via AD;
- Tons of greenhouse gases reduced;
- Dollar value of biogas generated and captured for productive uses, such as in combined heat and power and renewable natural gas;
- Dollar value of digestate reused or processed;
- Dollars saved (e.g. avoided tipping fees) through waste diversion to AD.
Eligibility Criteria
- Applications will be accepted from States (including the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Virgin Islands, Guam, American Samoa, and Northern Mariana Islands), local, Tribal, interstate, and intrastate government agencies and instrumentalities, and non-profit organizations that are not 501(c)(4) organizations that lobby, including non-profit educational institutions and non-profit hospitals.
For more information, visit https://www.grants.gov/web/grants/view-opportunity.html?oppId=334660