ARB Research Seminar: The Feasibility of Renewable Natural Gas as a Large-Scale, Low Carbon Substitute

California Air Resources Board will host a research seminar to present and discuss the findings of a Renewable Natural Gas Feasibility study on Friday, December 2, 2016 at 10:00 am, to be conducted by Amy Myers Jaffe, M.S., University of California, Davis and Nathan Parker, Ph.D., Arizona State University.

California will need high volumes of alternative low carbon fuels to be able to meet its climate  change goals. In order to support these goals, this study investigated the technological and
commercial feasibility of producing large quantities of renewable natural gas fuels for use in California.

The study’s results indicate that there are substantial sources of RNG in California that are commercially competitive with existing fossil fuel-based transportation fuels because carbon externalities are taken into consideration in the California market through existing programs
such as the Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) and the U.S. Renewable Fuels Standard (RFS).

At current credit prices including California’s LCFS and the U.S. federal Renewable Identification Number (RIN) credits, up to 82 billion cubic feet per year (bcf/y) of RNG supply could be attractive for private investment at competitive rate of return in developing RNG sources from landfill, dairy, municipal solid waste and waste-water sites combined. We find that the LCFS credit of $120 per metric tonne of CO2, if taken alone, enables economically viable production of up to 14 bcf RNG transportation fuel over the study period, which begins in 2013 and extends into the
2020s, 6.3 bcf from landfill, 1.5 bcf from waste-water treatment, 1.75 bcf from municipal solid waste, and 4.3 bcf from dairy.

If current carbon credit prices persist into the future for programs like the LCFS, a substantial portion of natural gas consumption in the transportation sector can be satisfied by RNG. The analysis also shows that increasing tipping fees for municipal solid waste can influence private investment in RNG. Finally, the study investigates the impact of California’s quality standards for RNG and distance to central distribution systems on the level of investment in certain kinds of RNG.

These results support the implementation of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard, Short-lived Climate Pollutant Strategy, and incentive programs by providing insight into feasible methods to maximize the production of RNG via the most cost-effective pathways, thereby providing practical means to meet the State’s long term climate goals. 

Details for the seminar are as follows:
Friday, December 2, 2016 10:00 a.m., PST (WEBCAST)
Sierra Hearing Room, 2nd Floor, Cal/EPA Building
1001 I Street, Sacramento, California

For more information, including the webcast link and presentations, visit the announcement webpage at https://www.arb.ca.gov/research/seminars/jaffe/jaffe.htm.

Gas sales become easier for landfill operators

Republic Services Landfill at 7001 S. Bryant Ave. in Oklahoma City was the first landfill in the state to capture its methane gas for commercial use. (Photo by Brent Fuchs)

By Sara Terry-Cobo, The Journal Record.

OKLAHOMA CITY – Business opportunities are opening up to Oklahoma landfill owners, thanks to changes in federal laws. National clean air incentives are improving the economics for projects that turn waste into fuel. That could turn into cheaper compressed natural gas for municipal fleet owners.

Adriane Jaynes said she’s trying to connect those city fleet managers to the landfill operators. She coordinates the Tulsa Clean Cities program, a local chapter of a national coalition to cut air pollution in government fleets. Landfill gas conversion projects will help her members, many of whom already have compressed natural gas, or CNG-fueled vehicles as part of their city fleets.

Those landfill-gas-to-CNG projects are particularly attractive to Clean Cities members who have their own natural gas fueling stations on municipal property, she said.

Decomposing garbage in landfills creates methane, but the smog-forming gas can’t just be released into the air, said Oklahoma Department of Environmental Quality’s Fenton Rood. Landfill operators can burn that gas, or capture it and use it. The methane rotting garbage produces can be processed to have the same properties as the natural gas that resides in underground rock formations.

David Cox travels the country explaining those landfill-to-CNG opportunities to fleet owners. The general counsel for a nonprofit trade association, the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas, said the processing equipment has been around for years. But a 2014 change in the national Clean Air Act allowed landfill gas to qualify for renewable fuel incentives. The change helps those projects become economical and competitive against geologic natural gas, he said.

An Ardmore landfill operator is examining several possible purchasers for a renewable natural gas project, said Rood, the DEQ’s land protection division assistant director. One buyer would use the gas for a CNG fleet, one would process the gas to put it into a pipeline, he said.

The first landfill in Oklahoma to capture and reuse its methane gas was a Republic Services-owned facility near the Plaza Mayor at the Crossroads, near Interstate 240. The buyer was General Motors. But that changed when the auto plant closed, Rood said.

“They are still selling some to a plastics manufacturer, but in the absence of (GM’s) demand, they have to flare some,” he said.

Cox said he expects more landfill-gas-to-CNG projects will emerge soon, in part because of the demand for CNG in vehicles. 

Renewable energy is seeping into small-town America

By David Roberts, Vox. 

Climate change is a highly polarized and contentious issue. It has taken on great symbolic significance for both sides of America’s deep partisan divide. And if Donald Trump and the GOP actually follow through on what they’ve promised, federal climate policy may all but disappear.

Clean energy, however, is different. In public opinion polls, it is supported by virtually every demographic, region, and party. 

What’s more, unlike the abstractions involved in climate, clean energy is real, tangible, and — perhaps most important of all — commercially viable. There are many things that divide Americans, but they are generally united on the benefits of making money.

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Obama Administration Issues Rules on Methane From Oil, Gas Operations

By Amy Harder, The Wall Street Journal. 

WASHINGTON—The Interior Department issued regulations Tuesday to cut methane emissions from oil and natural-gas operations on federal lands, one of the last moves President Barack Obama will make on his expansive climate agenda, which President-elect Donald Trump has vowed to dismantle.

The rules are aimed at helping meet an Obama administration goal of cutting the oil-and-gas industry’s emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, by as much as 45% from 2012 levels over the next decade.

The U.S. government is unlikely to meet that goal because Mr. Trump has been clear that he intends to reverse Mr. Obama’s climate agenda and withdraw rules that could restrict oil and natural-gas development. However, the president-elect hasn’t explicitly said he would undo this methane rule or another similar one at the Environmental Protection Agency.

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Ontario Taking Next Step in Implementing Cap and Trade Program

Via Ontario Ministry of the Environment and Climate Change.

Ontario is helping to make it easier for individuals, companies and organizations to get involved in fighting climate change.

Today, with Minister of the Environment and Climate Change Glen Murray at the United Nations' 22nd Climate Change Conference of the Parties in Morocco, the province is announcing consultations on its Offsets Credits Regulatory Proposal, which would help Ontario companies meet part of their compliance obligations to lower greenhouse gas emissions with offsets credits.

The proposed regulation would allow companies participating in the cap and trade program to purchase carbon offset credits for reducing their emissions or removing greenhouse gases emitted by sources not covered by cap and trade. Offset credits can be purchased for projects such as tree planting, which absorbs carbon dioxide, or manure management, which captures and destroys methane gas.

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Carbon emissions stable for third year in a row, study finds

By Bioenergy Insight. 

Global carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels have seen "almost no growth" for three years in a row, despite economic growth, scientists have said.

Emissions did not increase in 2015 and are expected to rise only 0.2% in 2016, according to new data from the University of East Anglia (UEA) and the Global Carbon Project.

The figures, which come after a rise of just 0.7% in emissions in 2014, are a clear break from the average 2.3% annual carbon dioxide increase from burning fossil fuels in the decade to 2013.

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World Biogas Association officially launches at COP22

By Cole Rosengren, Waste Dive.

Dive Brief:

• The World Biogas Association (WBA) has officially launched at the United Nations Convention on Climate Change COP22 in Morocco this week. The organization will focus on supporting the growth of anaerobic digestion and biogas projects that help meet UN sustainability targets.
• David Newman, former president of the International Solid Waste Association (ISWA), is the new president of WBA. Representatives of the American Biogas Council, HRS Heat Exchangers, the Italian Compost and Biogas Consortium and the UK's Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association are also among the founding members.
• WBA is open to companies, associations, universities, professionals and any other organizations working on biogas projects.

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Trump insider: New administration won't attack renewable energy

By Peter Maloney, Utility Dive. 

There has been a lot of angst in the renewable power sector over what the Trump presidency will mean, but according to a Trump insider, renewable energy will not be in the new president’s sights when he takes office in January.

The day after the election, shares of solar power companies like SolarCity, SunPower and Vivint Solar cratered, as did wind turbine maker Vestas, while shares of coal company Peabody Energy jumped more than 50%. But those drastic movements may not prove to be an accurate reflection of the realities the energy sector will face under Trump’s presidency.

“Energy is not one of the top five agenda items” on Trump’s to-do list when he takes office in January, according to a major Trump financial contributor who said he is a member of the transition team and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

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Here's What's on Donald Trump's Climate Change Hit List

Via Newsweek.

Among climate hawks, the reactions to Donald Trump’s election have ranged from hopeless to Pollyannaish and everything in between. Former Vice President Al Gore expresses hope that Trump will work with the “overwhelming majority of us who believe that the climate crisis is the greatest threat we face as a nation,” while the New York Times’ Andy Revkinargues that the U.S. president doesn’t make a huge amount of difference when it comes to climate anyway.

Going by his campaign promises, though, the Trump era is shaping up as an open season for the fossil fuel industry. Coal stocks are soaring, and there are strong indications that TransCanada might put the Keystone XL pipeline back on the table.

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Massachusetts funding aids anaerobic digestion projects

By Erin Voegele, Biomass Magazine.

Massachusetts recently awarded grant funding to two biogas-related projects under development by CRMC Bioenergy LLC and EL Harvey and Sons Inc. The awards were made under the commonwealth’s Recycling Business Development Grant program.

CRMC Bioenergy, a wholly owned subsidiary of CommonWealth Resource Management Corp. was awarded up to $200,000. The company owns and operates the existing BRMC Bioenergy Facility at the Crapo Hill Sanity Landfill in Dartmouth. CRMC aims to use the funding to add the ability to source and accept bulk materials in quantities required to support the planned expansion of the facility, an operating pilot-scale anaerobic digestion project. The grant will, in part, be used to purchase de-packaging equipment that will enable the facility to accept and process bulk organics that are packaged or have some level of contamination into a pump-able, slurried form for anaerobic digestion.

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