Anaerobic Digestion in Puerto Rico: Examples and Opportunities for Farms and Communities

Puerto Rico is highly susceptible to disruption and damage particularly from events like tropical storms, earthquakes, flooding, and landslides all of which can create challenges for local communities, particularly rural communities to meet basic energy and service needs and exacerbate existing challenges for agricultural production and managing organic waste. Anaerobic digestion presents an opportunity to turn that waste into useful products that can support greater community resilience. Centro de Microempresas y Tecnologias Agricolas Sustenables Yauco (CMTAS) is a community agricultural group in Yauco Quebradas, Puerto Rico. CMTAS has been active in Puerto Rico since 2011 developing biogas digesters and other agricultural solutions and enterprises. This report provides an in-depth case study exploring the current biogas production and utilization for CMTAS as well as pathways for commercialization of biogas and biofertilizer, alignment with regulatory requirements, and pathways for scaling.