RNG’s Growing Role in Decarbonization Strategies
Today, we know that the industrialization of our modern society has led to unintended consequences for our environment. Many of the means through which we power our buildings, drive our cars, and heat our spaces can have a negative impact on the planet, and on the health of those we care about.
Fortunately, much of this is changing through a global push toward clean energy sources and technology. More than ever, America is using its resourcefulness and ingenuity to usher in a cleaner future. Renewable natural gas (RNG) has become an increasingly important part of this future as a proven way to reduce our carbon footprint. Across the country, dairy farms, wastewater recovery facilities, landfills and other entities that process aggregated organic material are using methane capture and treating technologies to produce a sustainable energy resource that is displacing fossil fuel. Gasses that would otherwise be destroyed or enter the atmosphere as fugitive pollution are now purified for use in household and industrial thermal applications, to generate electricity, for vehicle fuel, and as a bio-feedstock. According to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, natural gas in the U.S. accounts for 29% of total electricity generation, 32% of industrial sector energy consumption, 24% of residential consumption, and 19% percent of commercial sector consumption. These numbers demonstrate that there is an undeniable opportunity to utilize gaseous waste streams to achieve deep decarbonization.
By Sam Lehr, David Cox and Mike Alaimo, Biogas Magazine