Smarter Feedstock Planning with Anessa AI
Optimizing Yields, Managing Risk and Unlocking Sustainability
In the world of biogas, feedstock is everything. You can have the most advanced biogas plant and a highly trained operations team, but if the feedstock mix isn’t right, you’re limiting your plant’s full potential. As energy markets shift, waste streams evolve and sustainability goals become non-negotiable, simply securing supply isn’t enough anymore. It is about planning smarter, secure and dynamic data management and proactive feedstock planning, that’s where Anessa AI comes in.
What Do You Need To Account For When Planning Your Feedstock Mix?
The misconception that all feedstocks are the same is one that might throw your biogas strategy off course. In reality, every feedstock tells a different story; some deliver high methane potential, while others can also bring environmental value or cost advantages.
Take animal manure, for example. While its methane yield is relatively low, its widespread availability and potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions make it a strategic asset, especially when co-digested with richer substrates, such as food waste or fats, oils, and grease (FOG). On the other hand, crop residues like corn residue offer high energy potential, but the cost of production is relatively high, and in some cases, they may not deliver meaningful environmental benefits, particularly if they are not true by-products of crop production. Also, feedstocks like rice husks, cotton stalks, and sugarcane bagasse can see significant methane yield improvements but require more complex pre-treatment and handling strategies due to their lignocellulosic structure. They can provide great value when pre-treated through different methods like grinding, proper mixing, thermal hydrolysis, or using additives and enzymes. Similarly, sorted biowaste from urban centers can outperform many agricultural residues in energy production, if properly pre-treated and uncontaminated. (IEA, 2025)
How does Anessa AI help with Feedstock Planning?
Instead of relying on general assumptions or historical averages, the platform uses real data and simulations to evaluate feedstock performance in your plant’s context. It helps you balance energy yield vs. acquisition cost, taking into account logistics, pre-treatment needs, and seasonal availability, along with biogas plants' technological capacity. Whether you’re negotiating tipping fees with local partners or looking to diversify your feedstock mix, Anessa gives you the full picture, so data, not guesswork, always backs your decisions.
Feedstock Planning Isn’t Static, It’s Continuous
A static feedstock plan may have worked in the past, but today it’s a recipe for failure. Market prices fluctuate. Seasons change. Supplies dry up, change or shift in composition. Locking yourself into a rigid feedstock strategy can severely limit an anaerobic digestion plant’s performance, especially if you're trying to meet financial targets or sustainability benchmarks.
That’s why continuous planning and optimization isn’t just nice to have, it’s essential. Anessa’s AI-powered platform brings agility to your operation with features like:
Recipe optimization: Adjust feedstock blends in real-time based on supply, price, and performance.
Scenario modelling: Simulate outcomes for different feedstock combinations before making real-world changes.
Supplier prioritization: Identify your most valuable feedstock sources and adapt to fluctuations in availability.
Manually keeping up with all this would be overwhelming. But Anessa simplifies it into one dynamic, intuitive platform, turning complexity into clarity and helping your team stay ahead of market swings and plant-level risks.
The Global RNG Landscape & Energy Security
We’re operating in a time of geopolitical uncertainty, where energy security is no longer just a policy issue; it’s a business reality. Gas price volatility and supply disruptions, especially post-Ukraine conflict, have made RNG a priority in regions like Europe, which saw a significant uptick in domestic biogas investment as a response. (IEA, 2025)
In North America, new trade dynamics and tariff uncertainties are pushing stakeholders to re-evaluate supply chains and explore domestic feedstock opportunities, making it even more challenging to stay confident in these necessity-driven decisions due to not understanding their full impact on their operation. For plant operators, this means one thing: locking in sustainable, scalable feedstock sources is more urgent than ever.
But building a dependable feedstock pipeline isn’t easy. It requires:
Trust and coordination between various stakeholders, such as farmers, haulers, municipalities, and plant operators.
New business models that account for seasonal fluctuations and logistical challenges.
Long-term strategies that can support 15- to 20-year RNG supply contracts.
Operators can no longer afford to take an ad hoc approach. With Anessa Biogas Software, you can plan for the long haul, analyzing feedstock availability, pricing, and impact over time, not just month to month.
Feedstocks That Deliver the Biggest Environmental Return
If you’re chasing ESG targets or looking to qualify for clean fuel incentives, your feedstock choice has a direct correlation to your plant’s financial success.
Feedstocks like manure and landfilled organics deliver significantly greater environmental impact than energy crops or raw crop residues. Why? Because diverting these materials from their conventional disposal pathways (land application or landfill) avoids substantial methane emissions. This translates into lower Carbon Intensity (CI) scores, which are critical for generating higher credits under programs like:
Clean Fuel Regulations in Canada
LCFS (Low Carbon Fuel Standard) in California, US and British Columbia, Canada
D3 RINs under the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard
Anessa helps you model and visualize the carbon impact of different feedstock blends, so your sourcing strategy doesn’t just boost output, it unlocks additional revenue streams through environmental performance. Sustainability becomes more than a reporting metric; it becomes a competitive advantage.
Smarter Feedstock Strategy = Stronger Biogas Performance
The days of reactive feedstock planning are over. With more moving parts, higher market stakes, and evolving regulatory incentives, biogas operators need to act more like strategists and less like firefighters.
Anessa AI helps you do just that. From optimizing for methane yield to navigating seasonal supply gaps, balancing environmental benefits, and projecting long-term economic returns, Anessa turns data into action.
In a world where feedstock is everything, planning smarter with Anessa AI is how you get more from what you’ve got and build a future-ready biogas operation.
