RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.UPS Cruising Toward Alternative Fuel Goal
By NGT News.
UPS has a goal of driving 1 billion miles in its alternative fuel and advanced technology fleet by the end of 2017, and if the company's annual Sustainability Report and a slew of recent announcements are any indication, UPS has picked up the pace and is well on its way toward meeting that target.
According to its new 2014 Sustainability Report, the company accelerated investment in its clean fleet last year, increasing the number of greener vehicles by 61% over 2013 and adding 1,100 natural gas vehicles. By year’s end, the report says, UPS was operating over 5,000 alt-fuel and advanced technology vehicles on the road worldwide. Such vehicles include all-electric, hybrid electric, hydraulic hybrid, compressed natural gas (CNG), liquefied natural gas (LNG), propane and biomethane models.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and CNH Industrial promote biomethane at Expo 2015 in partnership with Air Liquide
By Automotive World.
Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and CNH Industrial – Official Global Partners of Expo Milano 2015 and European leaders in natural gas engine technology – announce a new partnership with Air Liquide, world leader in gases, technologies and services for Industry and Health. Together with Air Liquide, FCA and CNH Industrial have launched a project at Expo to promote the introduction of biomethane throughout infrastructure networks in Europe. Presently, in Italy, biomethane is still not accessible as a fuel to the public.
At Expo 2015, the central theme “Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life” is interpreted by both companies as an act of making informed choices, promoting sustainable lifestyles, using the latest technologies and finding a balance between availability and consumption of resources. FCA has provided a fleet of vehicles that includes 50 Fiat 500L Natural Power (methane/petrol) vehicles. These vehicles are to be used by the delegations of the participating countries for car sharing activities. CNH Industrial’s Iveco Bus brand has provided a fleet of seven Urbanway 12-metre buses powered by environmentally-friendly compressed natural gas (CNG) engines. These will be used for visitor transportation within the Expo site. All of these vehicles are also equipped to run on biomethane.
Grassley Urges EPA to Increase Volumes Under the Renewable Fuel Standard, Says Low Levels Will Undermine Next Generation Fuels, Increase Dependence on Foreign Oil
By Senator Chuck Grassley.
en. Chuck Grassley of Iowa is urging the Environmental Protection Agency to revise and increase its proposed volume obligations for renewable biofuels under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) for 2014, 2015, and 2016.
“The RFS has added value to agriculture markets and energized many rural economies across Iowa and the nation,” Grassley wrote to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. “It has helped create hundreds of thousands of jobs while lowering prices for consumers at the pump while reducing emissions. It has also increased our national security by reducing our dependence on foreign oil.
“Unfortunately, the EPA’s proposal will undermine these efforts. While I recognize the proposal is a modest improvement over the previous proposed rule, without significant improvements, the proposal will lead to job losses and will increase our dependence on foreign oil. It will harm the development of next generation and cellulosic fuels and weaken efforts to build out renewable fuels infrastructure.”
Energy from burning trash is ‘renewable,’ court says
By David Wichner, Arizona Daily Star.
An Arizona utility can burn trash and claim the electricity it generates is coming from renewable resources, the state Court of Appeals has ruled.
The judges rejected arguments by the Sierra Club that the Arizona Corporation Commission acted illegally in concluding the Mohave Electric Cooperative could meet part of its renewable-energy mandate through trash. They said it is up to the commission to decide what is renewable, a decision they did not want to second-guess.
In upholding the commission’s 2011 vote, the court also overturned a 2013 ruling by Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Crane McClennen. He concluded that the commission violated its own rules in concluding power from incinerators burning waste could be considered “renewable.”
Thursday’s ruling, unless overturned, should clear the way for Mohave Electric to meet part of its renewable energy mandate through power generated from a proposed plant near Surprise. But it also paves the way for other utilities to propose incineration of trash to meet their own mandates.
Canada's Gaz Metro renewable natural gas project given the green light
By See News.
Quebec's electricity sector regulator Regie de l'energie du Quebec last week gave the green light to natural gas distributor Gaz Metro LP (TSE:VNR) to buy and distribute renewable natural gas (RNG).
The City of Saint-Hyacinthe will recycle organic waste through anaerobic digestion to produce some 13 million cubic metres per year of RNG and Gaz Metro will build the infrastructure required to connect the output to its distribution network.
Injection of the RNG into Gaz Metro's distribution network is scheduled to start in 2017 and continue for a 20-year period.
This approval sets a precedent for the commercial outlet for all renewable natural gas producers located near Saint-Hyacinthe gas network, which serves over 300 municipalities province-wide.
Xebec's Landfill Gas Upgrade Project Helps Fuel Taxis in China
By NGT News.
Xebec Adsorption Inc., a Canada-based provider of gas purification and filtration solutions, has successfully started up a commercial landfill gas to compressed natural gas (CNG) upgrading system in Anshan, China. Xebec says the resultant gas will be used to power natural gas taxis operating in Anshan.
According to the company, the landfill gas upgrading system is based on Xebec's fast-cycle pressure swing adsorption (PSA) technology, which is assembled and integrated at the company's Shanghai facility.
Greenlane Biogas installs biogas upgrading plant in China
By Greenlane Biogas.
Greenlane Biogas has partnered with China Agricultural University to install a biogas upgrading system to facilitate research in the generation of renewable natural gas (RNG). The top academic institution in China for agricultural studies, CAU will use Greenlane’s water scrubbing based biogas upgrading solution to test and optimize biogas yields of various agricultural organic wastes generated from a variety of anaerobic digesters.
The plant is located at CAU’s National RNG Demonstration Park in Zhuozhou, a city just to the south of Beijing. The plant will convert biogas to RNG at a rate of 80 cubic meters per hour. The resulting RNG is compliant with China’s standards for natural gas vehicles (NGV) and is being piped to a compressed natural gas (CNG) refueling station onsite to serve NGVs from neighboring towns.
Big Blue Bus, Fueling a Renewable Future One Bus at a Time
By Businesswire.
The City of Santa Monica’s Big Blue Bus (BBB) announced today that it has become one of the country’s first municipal transit authorities to convert its fleet to renewable natural gas (RNG), rated 90% cleaner than diesel and considered the cleanest transportation fuel available. Earlier this year, BBB modified its original agreement with Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (Nasdaq: CLNE) to transition the supply of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) for its fleet to Clean Energy’s Redeem™ renewable LNG (Redeem™), which is non-fracked methane harvested from organic waste in landfills.
With the announcement, BBB unveiled a new Bus ad campaign called “Bigger, Bluer, Skies” to emphasize the lower emissions and sustainability of this type of fuel.
U.S. House Passes Highway Bill with Alt-Fuel Tax Parity Provision
By NGTNews.
On Wednesday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a highway and transportation funding bill that includes a provision meant to help level the playing field for how certain alternative fuels are taxed in relation to conventional fuels.
H.R.3038, legislation to fund and extend the authorization for the country's highway and transit programs through the end of 2015, passed the House in a 312-119 vote.
Offsetting Local: Inside A Landfill Gas Project
By Allie Goldstein, EcoSystem Marketplace.
It’s a hot day in May, and air conditioners throughout Washington, D.C. are already pumping. Across the river in Alexandria, Virginia, a group of WGL Energy employees stands next to a giant pile of trash. Mike Gailliot, the owner of the pile, opens a chain-link fence and leads the group into a maze of pipes and blowers, all pumping methane – a potent greenhouse gas – into a six-inch gas flare that is invisible save for the willowy shadow it casts on the sidewalk. This flare is the result of the methane being burned off into carbon dioxide, reducing its impact on the atmosphere by 95%.
Galliot points out a concealed box that contains a continuous methane analyzer that shoots a laser through the gas to determine its contents. If the methane concentration falls too low to sustain a flame, the propane lighter automatically shuts off, and Gailliot and his engineers receive a text – sometimes in the middle of the night – prompting them to check on the system.
“There is definitely a science to it,” he says. “And an art, I suppose.”
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