CAMDEN, N.J. — Campbell Soup Co. has partnered with CH4 Biogas L.L.C. (CH4) to create Ohio’s first commercial biogas power plant to generate renewable electricity. CH4 is a renewable energy company that builds, owns and operates biogas based renewable energy facilities on farms and at food processing plants. Campbell will direct waste generated from its soup, sauce and beverage production in Napoleon, Ohio, diverting 35% to 50% of its current waste away from Henry county landfills.

Campbell said the anaerobic digester will process material from area food processors, waste recyclers and local dairy farms, generating methane gas that will be used to fuel turbines that will produce energy for Campbell’s existing beverage production and offsetting fossil fuel use. The power generated for the beverage facility will replace about 25% of Campbell’s Napoleon facility’s annual electricity use, the company said.

“This new biogas technology will improve Campbell’s Napoleon recycling rate to approximately 95%, reaching the company’s 2020 destination goal for the site early,” said Dave Stangis, vice-president of public affairs and corporate responsibility at Campbell. “The use of biogas energy will reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with the use of electricity in this facility by approximately 16,000 metric tons per year, or the equivalent of 3,000 cars.”

The biogas power plant, Napoleon Biogas, will be located on more than seven acres of land directly across the street from the Campbell site in Harrison Township. CH4 designed, owns and operates the site, acting as stewards of the land, protecting the watershed, and recycling and processing the organic waste in an environmentally sustainable way.

Construction is under way and slated for completion in mid-2013.