RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Germany could rethink role of biomass plants - experts
By Laura Raus, ICIS.
As Germany prepares to revise its renewable energy law again, experts say the country should review the role of biomass – a carbon-neutral way of balancing fluctuating wind and solar electricity generation.
Germany’s previous renewable energy law change, which came into force last year, hit the biomass sector with lower subsidies and a 100MW annual expansion cap (see EDEM 6 November 2014).
This has brought biomass development close to a halt. The country’s installed capacity stood at 8.8GW in August, almost unchanged from late 2014, according to the Fraunhofer research institute. Last year, installed biomass capacity increased by 5%, compared with 10% in 2013.
Fuel Intentions: American industry wastes insane amounts of gas by burning it off. It doesn’t have to.
By Daniel Gross, Slate.
What if we just stopped wasting, pissing away, burning, and flushing precious resources? Wouldn’t that contribute significantly to sustainability? The early returns from California’s belated response to its water crisis show that great leaps in conservation are possible with comparatively little upfront investment—and without killing the economy or immiserating residents unduly. In July, city-dwelling Californians used 31 percent less water than they did in July 2013, exceeding the 25 percent reduction target the state had set
Now what if we were to adapt the same mentality toward another domestic resource?
While not quite as cheap and plentiful as water, gas is sufficiently cheap and plentiful that American industry squanders it on a regular basis. Various forms of gas are byproducts of a host of industrial processes: Oil production spurs the creation of natural gas; decomposing garbage in landfills produces methane; wastewater treatment plants produce biogas. And we routinely waste it.
Garbage In, Power Out: South Carolina BMW Plant Demonstrates Landfill Gas to Hydrogen Fuel
By Energy.gov.
A BMW manufacturing plant in Greer, South Carolina, demonstrated that fuel cells can be powered by fuel from a unique source: Garbage.
In a first-of-its-kind demonstration, the Energy Department, BMW and project partners Ameresco, Gas Technology Institute and the South Carolina Research Authority powered some of the facility’s fuel cell forklifts with hydrogen produced on-site from biomethane gas at a nearby landfill.
The first phase of the landfill gas-to-hydrogen project showed that a viable business case can be made for large scale operation. The second phase of the project confirmed that commercially-available technologies are available to recover fuel cell-quality hydrogen from a landfill gas source. As the final step in the project, several of BMW’s material handling equipment units were fueled with hydrogen from the project equipment with no detectable difference in performance compared to that achieved when fueled by the existing delivered hydrogen at BMW.
Sustainable Development Technology Canada offers RNG clean tech funding opportunities
By REMI Network.
Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC) is offering funding for various clean-tech development projects within Canada through its SD Tech Fund and SD Natural Gas Fund.
Applications are being accepted from August 26 to October 14, 2015. Leah Lawrence, president and chief executive officer of SDTC, says the goal is to get clean tech innovations closer to market.
“Clean tech represents that double bottom line, bringing together environmental goals and economic activity in a way that generates jobs and opportunity across Canada,” she says. “And what an opportunity it represents for Canada: recent reports peg the Canadian clean tech market at $12 billion.”
Hoosier Energy to build fourth landfill gas-to-energy plant
By Anne Simet, Biomass Magazine.
Hoosier Energy and Randolph Farms Landfill have teamed up for a landfill gas-to-energy project in east central Indiana’s Randolph County.
The 156-acre Randolph Farms Landfill is located near Modoc, Indiana, with electric service provided by Whitewater Valley REMC, one of 18 distribution cooperatives that own Hoosier Energy. Hoosier will construct the 4.4-MW Cabin Creek landfill gas facility, which will be the fourth project of its kind of for the electric cooperative. It owns and operates two other landfill gas facilities—the 4-MW Clark-Floyd landfill methane gas project in Clark County, Indiana, and the 15-MW Livingston landfill-gas-to-energy facility near Pontiac, Illinois. A third, 16-MW plant at Orchard Hills landfill in Illinois, is scheduled to be in service in mid-2016, according to Hoosier Energy.
U.S. DOE Awards up to $4 Million to Develop Advanced Biofuels & Bioproducts
The Energy Department today announced two additional projects selected to receive up to $4 million to develop next-generation biofuels that will help reduce the cost of producing gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels from biomass. These projects—in addition to five projects previously selected in October 2014 under the same funding opportunity—total a $17.3 million investment by the Department to develop technologies that will enable the production of clean, renewable, and cost-competitive drop-in biofuels at $3 per gallon of gasoline equivalent by 2022.
Advancing and commercializing cost-competitive biofuels will help the Department work toward its goal of reducing current petroleum consumption in the United States and, in turn, enhance U.S. national security and reduce carbon emissions.
These competitively selected research and development projects, located in Texas and Ohio, will focus on lowering biofuel production costs by converting lignin to valuable products other than heat and power.
Business and labor groups call for natural gas pipeline, renewables
By Jack Newsham, The Boston Globe.
A group of New England labor and business groups has called for the construction of new pipelines, transmissions lines, wind farms, and other energy infrastructure, warning of billions of dollars in lost income and tens of thousands of lost jobs if the region doesn’t commit to doing more to cut energy costs.
The newly formed New England Coalition for Affordable Energy said Wednesday that without new investment, the region could face $5.4 billion in higher energy costs between now and 2020, according to a study the group conducted. The private sector would create 52,000 fewer jobs, without new energy infrastructure, according to the study.
Clinton says she would seek to strengthen RFS, but mum on details
By Catherine Lucey, Associated Press
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Hillary Rodham Clinton is proposing more money for programs that help new farmers and she wants to increase access to fresh food as part of a rural agenda for her Democratic presidential campaign.
Standing in front of a green John Deere tractor, Clinton introduced the plan Wednesday at an Iowa community college. She took a break from her vacation on New York's Long Island to outline the plan in the leadoff caucus state. She promised to boost economic investment in rural areas, increase agricultural production, promote clean energy and enhance access to health care and education.
"Iowans are in the future business," Clinton told about 200 people in a hall at the Des Moines Area Community College. "Just look at the way you have seized opportunities from wind energy to biofuels."
City 'Hits a Home Run' with Renewable Natural Gas Project
By Pete Lewis, NGT News.
As communities across the U.S. convert their fleets to cleaner-burning, domestically produced alternative fuels, the next logical step is to power those fleets with fuel that's already produced by the community.
Digester gas is a natural byproduct of landfills and wastewater treatment plants. Until recently, digester gas, or biogas, was considered an unavoidable nuisance. The challenge was finding a method to get rid of the gas in the cleanest, safest and cheapest manner. The gas typically was released into the atmosphere or flared off. Landfills and treatment plants were satisfied to simply dispose of this potentially valuable resource.
Gas from garbage can be a useful waste
By Laura Legere, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
Gas from garbage can be a useful waste.
Methane created by decaying organic material in Pennsylvania landfills has been used in greenhouses; in asphalt plants; to produce electricity at a prison; and to generate steam for turning potatoes into dehydrated potato flakes.
Now a rule proposed by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency might spur new landfill gas-to-energy projects, if the business case for using the gas is more compelling than burning it off.
On Aug. 14, EPA announced two proposals that would lower the emissions threshold by nearly a third for when new or existing landfills have to begin collecting and controlling landfill gas rather than just letting it seep into the atmosphere.
The rule is more about environmental protection than energy development: methane is a potent greenhouse gas and landfills were responsible for 18 percent of the human-caused methane emissions in the U.S. in 2013, making it the third largest methane source after ruminant livestock and leaky oil and gas systems.
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