Grand Junction, Colorado BioCNG Facility Featured on National Geographic
By City of Grand Junction.
The highly acclaimed and internationally recognized biogas project at the Persigo Wastewater Treatment Facility will receive even more attention in the coming week when it is featured on the National Geographic Channel series “Positive Energy”. The series, which chronicles energy projects in North and South America, begins Wednesday, October 18 at 3:00 p.m. The first episode will include the Grand Junction story. A film crew was onsite last November working with City staff to produce the segment.
In 2006, the City of Grand Junction began researching a biogas project that would allow methane gas produced at the Persigo Wastewater Treatment Facility to be used as vehicle fuel. Currently, the facility produces approximately 120,000 cubic feet of gas in the anaerobic digestion process per day. Since plant startup back in 1984, only a small amount of the methane was used to fuel the boilers that heat the digestion process, with the vast majority of the gas being flared off.
In 2011, the City began implementing a plan for the future by beginning to purchase Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) fleet vehicles and planning for construction of a fueling station for them. The first CNG solid waste trucks were delivered within days of the CNG fueling station being completed.