Developer of facilities that create renewable energy and soil products, Bioenergy Devco (BDC) said Thursday it has an agreement with Chesapeake Utilities Corp. (CPK) to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) for its customers on Delaware’s Delmarva Peninsula.

BDC, which develops anaerobic digestion facilities in the Mid-Atlantic, recently entered into a 20-year agreement with Perdue Farms, giving it access to the poultry waste at facilities on the peninsula. Anaerobic digesters use naturally occurring microbes to break down food waste into biogas.

“Recent estimates have shown that turning agricultural waste and excess organics from the poultry industry into truly renewable natural gas could replace seven billion gallons of diesel fuel and generate 70,000 new jobs,” said BDC CEO Shawn Kreloff.

Elsewhere, the RNG option is being explored around the country by developers including Sempra Energy’s Southern California Gas Co, which in 2019 pledged to make RNG 20% of supply by 2030 in its quest to become the “cleanest gas utility in North America.”

In February, Oregon-based NW Natural also showed its support for RNG, and announced plans to deliver RNG into its pipeline system to be distributed to the transportation sector over several projects this year.

The RNG produced from the BDC’s digester technology would be delivered to some of CPK’s approximately 70,000 residential, commercial and industrial customers who reside in Dover, DE. CPK affiliates Eastern Shore Natural Gas Co., Chesapeake Utilities, as well as Marlin Gas Services, plan to collaborate on the project by distributing the RNG to their customers.

The Bioenergy Innovation Center, the BDC’s anaerobic digestion facility in Delaware, would be used to process the organic material. Once refined into usable RNG, it would be distributed by CPK’s affiliates to natural gas customers.

The companies expect the RNG created through BDC’s technology, which uses a data-driven process to increase reliable, utility-grade RNG, will optimize the quality and quantity produced.