RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Waste Dive: Organics diversion is here to stay in NYC. What's next?
By Cole Rosengren, Waste Dive.
Reducing and diverting food waste is all the rage in cities these days, and New York is trying to become the organics diversion capital of the country. The city now has the largest curbside residential organics program in the country and recently announced plans to expand its commercial diversion requirements too. The results of this first phase culminated in many ways with the first-ever NYC Food Waste Fair hosted by the Foundation for New York’s Strongest and the city's Department of Sanitation (DSNY) — at the Brooklyn Expo Center on July 25.
By Cole Rosengren, Waste Dive.
Reducing and diverting food waste is all the rage in cities these days, and New York is trying to become the organics diversion capital of the country. The city now has the largest curbside residential organics program in the country and recently announced plans to expand its commercial diversion requirements too. The results of this first phase culminated in many ways with the first-ever NYC Food Waste Fair hosted by the Foundation for New York’s Strongest and the city's Department of Sanitation (DSNY) — at the Brooklyn Expo Center on July 25.
In addition to a general feeling of excitement about how far this sector had come, there was also an undercurrent of discussion about the growing pains involved. Based on annual surveys of regional processing capacity, DSNY remains convinced that enough options are out there and the finances are working. Others in the industry see a more complex picture, with many facilities still located far from the city, and unable to accept the often contaminated material coming out of its businesses. DSNY moved to address this last summer by awarding an estimated $47 million in pre-processing contracts for residential material — with the added goal of improving commercial options — though more work remains.
Boise, Idaho, Anaerobic Digester to Process Multiple Streams to Increase Efficiency
By Arlene Karidis, Waste 360.
Idaho-based developer Boise Biogas is working with two tech companies to install an anaerobic digestion (AD) system that will be fed by various feedstocks to produce pipeline gas for local distributors and fertlizer for local farmers.
Boise Biogas, which will own and run the operation, is in the late stages of rezoning and finalizing the land purchase. It hopes to begin injecting into the pipeline by late 2018.
By Arlene Karidis, Waste 360.
Idaho-based developer Boise Biogas is working with two tech companies to install an anaerobic digestion (AD) system that will be fed by various feedstocks to produce pipeline gas for local distributors and fertlizer for local farmers.
Boise Biogas, which will own and run the operation, is in the late stages of rezoning and finalizing the land purchase. It hopes to begin injecting into the pipeline by late 2018.
The partners are shooting for a zero waste facility and materials with greater than five percent contamination will be rejected, says Will Charlton, president of Digester Doc, a Boise, Idaho-based lab services company that optimizes AD systems. Charlton was contracted for this project, which will process 1,500 wet tons a day.
Boise Biogas’ original plan was only to generate electricity to run its equipment.
“But our reach expanded because we found in the Treasure Valley area there is a surplus of organics that was ending up on local landfills or being trucked to remote sites,” says Chuck Anderson, president and director of engineering and operations for Boise Biogas. “They were starting to fill up. Plus, dairy farms were asking for help with manure management…. We thought anaerobic digestion was the best way to create a useable energy product from all this waste.”
City of Portland contracts with Community College to convert vehicles to natural gas
By USGasVehicles.com.
July 21, 2017. Portland has vehicles it wants to convert to running on compressed natural gas (CNG). Linn-Benton Community College has students learning how to do such conversions.
For officials at the community college's Advanced Transportation Technology Center (ATTC) in Lebanon, it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
By USGasVehicles.com.
July 21, 2017. Portland has vehicles it wants to convert to running on compressed natural gas (CNG). Linn-Benton Community College has students learning how to do such conversions.
For officials at the community college's Advanced Transportation Technology Center (ATTC) in Lebanon, it's the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
Eight students with the ATTC's Gaseous Fuels Conversions class are finishing the first conversion to compressed natural gas for Portland city officials this week. They are working on a 2013 GMC pickup that will be used in Portland's environmental services division.
Five vehicles are currently contracted for conversion, with three more on the way and dozens more expected after that.
RNG Stakeholders Testify at EPA Renewable Fuel Volume Standard Hearing
By Lauren Turner, NGT News.
Several renewable natural gas stakeholders attended the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) public comment hearing today on the 2018 Renewable Fuel Volume Standard Proposed Rule to advocate for RNG transportation fuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program.
According to the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (RNG Coalition), the RNG industry was heavily represented at the hearing, noting that nearly 40 of the 143 stakeholders pre-registered to provide public testimony carried the RNG Coalition’s message to the EPA.
By Lauren Turner, NGT News.
Several renewable natural gas stakeholders attended the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) public comment hearing today on the 2018 Renewable Fuel Volume Standard Proposed Rule to advocate for RNG transportation fuel under the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) program.
According to the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (RNG Coalition), the RNG industry was heavily represented at the hearing, noting that nearly 40 of the 143 stakeholders pre-registered to provide public testimony carried the RNG Coalition’s message to the EPA.
At the hearing, RNG stakeholders advocated that EPA’s cellulosic biofuel calculation methodology in the final rule account for both increased cellulosic biofuel generation from projects currently producing fuel, and the projected production from 24 additional RNG projects nearing completion of construction that are planned to begin generating RIN credits under the RFS program later this year and throughout 2018.
“RNG has supplied 98% of the RFS’s cellulosic biofuel market since it received the D3 RIN designation in 2014,” says Ashley Patterson, vice president of government relations and public policy with Ameresco.
Florida county gives waste-hauling companies to end of 2020 to switch to CNG trucks
By Cody Boteler, Waste Dive.
Dive Brief:
- The two waste-hauling companies in Seminole County, FL, will have to replace their current fleet with trucks that run on compressed natural gas (CNG) by the end of 2020, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
- The companies, Waste Pro of Florida and Advanced Disposal Services, service roughly 65,000 homes in the county. Waste Pro has "about 20" trucks and Advanced Disposal has "about 10" trucks, according to the Sentinel. Recycling trucks and commercial waste trucks will not be affected by the CNG mandate.
- Orange County, FL, required waste haulers to switch to CNG in 2015. There are 114 trucks operated by three companies in Orange County running on CNG, servicing over 200,000 customers, according to the Sentinel.
Canadian airlines aiming to become a biofuel superpower, reduce carbon footprint
By Ross Marowits, The Canadian Press, National Post.
MONTREAL — The country’s top airlines say resource-rich Canada has the potential to become a biofuel superpower by transforming forest residue and agricultural crops into energy that can help the industry reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“Canada actually has an opportunity like no other country where it can displace large amounts of fuel and reduce large amounts of carbon,” Mena Salib, Air Canada’s manager of aircraft noise and emissions, said Tuesday after speaking to a global biotech conference.
By Ross Marowits, The Canadian Press, National Post.
MONTREAL — The country’s top airlines say resource-rich Canada has the potential to become a biofuel superpower by transforming forest residue and agricultural crops into energy that can help the industry reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
“Canada actually has an opportunity like no other country where it can displace large amounts of fuel and reduce large amounts of carbon,” Mena Salib, Air Canada’s manager of aircraft noise and emissions, said Tuesday after speaking to a global biotech conference.
Salib said the industry wants to procure biofuels from local sources instead of transporting it far to meet demand.
“The prize would be technology from Canada, the feedstock is from Canada and it is used by Canadians.”
The country’s largest airline has been part of several flight tests to study biofuels and is ready to add the lower carbon energy blends when they are readily available.
Food Straus Family Creamery powered by cow gas
By Tara Duggan, San Francisco Chronicle.
With barely a sound, the red and white International Harvester feed truck unloaded a mix of silage, barley and rice to a dozen pregnant cows, releasing a sour, grassy aroma into the foggy morning at Straus Family Creamery in Marshall. The all-electric feed truck is entirely powered by methane gas that was released by the farm’s 280 cows, or rather, their poop.
“I like to say the cows are powering the truck that feeds them,” said owner Albert Straus, whose organic dairy is perched on the edge of Tomales Bay in Marin County.
By Tara Duggan, San Francisco Chronicle.
With barely a sound, the red and white International Harvester feed truck unloaded a mix of silage, barley and rice to a dozen pregnant cows, releasing a sour, grassy aroma into the foggy morning at Straus Family Creamery in Marshall. The all-electric feed truck is entirely powered by methane gas that was released by the farm’s 280 cows, or rather, their poop.
“I like to say the cows are powering the truck that feeds them,” said owner Albert Straus, whose organic dairy is perched on the edge of Tomales Bay in Marin County.
The truck, which went into service this month, had a timely debut. On Tuesday, Gov. Jerry Brown signed legislation extending cap-and-trade regulations, AB398, part of the state’s effort to cut greenhouse gases 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Methane gas heats up the atmosphere as much as 20 times as quickly as carbon dioxide, and a big source is cow manure and burps.
All of the electricity needed to run the Straus truck, several smaller vehicles and the entire dairy farm comes from a system fueled by methane gas from the cows’ manure. (The gas in bovine belches is harder to capture.) The truck serves only one of nine dairies that produce milk for Straus Family Creamery, so it’s just a start. But Straus, whose farm has been off the grid since he installed the methane-powered energy system in 2004, hopes it can be an example to other dairies in California, and, he said, the world.
EPA transition team official dismissed climate science debate as 'silliness'
By Devin Henry, The Hill.
A former transition official at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is dismissing the agency's plan to debate climate change science as "silliness."
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is planning to deploy a “red team, blue team” debate over the scientific consensus around climate change. But David Schnare, a 34-year EPA veteran and former transition official for the Trump administration, dismissed that approach in an op-ed for InsideEPA.
By Devin Henry, The Hill.
A former transition official at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is dismissing the agency's plan to debate climate change science as "silliness."
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is planning to deploy a “red team, blue team” debate over the scientific consensus around climate change. But David Schnare, a 34-year EPA veteran and former transition official for the Trump administration, dismissed that approach in an op-ed for InsideEPA.
“The Red team-blue team concept simply does not apply within the scientific community,” he wrote.
“That … is not how science works. Science is supposed to be done by individuals ‘disinterested’ in the outcome of their observations. It is not supposed to be a political blood sport.”
Speaker Ryan admits defeat, giving up on border adjustment tax
By Damian Paletta, The Washington Post.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) has agreed to jettison one of the most controversial aspects of his tax overhaul plan, clearing the way for the White House to move forward on its plans for sweeping tax cuts later this year.
After months of talks, Ryan and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) have backed down on their demand that any changes to the tax code include the imposition of a new “border adjustment tax” on imported goods, at least in the short term.
By Damian Paletta, The Washington Post.
House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) has agreed to jettison one of the most controversial aspects of his tax overhaul plan, clearing the way for the White House to move forward on its plans for sweeping tax cuts later this year.
After months of talks, Ryan and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin Brady (R-Tex.) have backed down on their demand that any changes to the tax code include the imposition of a new “border adjustment tax” on imported goods, at least in the short term.
The revelation came in a joint statement that Ryan, Brady, top Senate Republicans and senior White House officials released Thursday as way to update the public about the status of their tax overhaul negotiations.
“While we have debated the pro-growth benefits of border adjustability, we appreciate that there are many unknowns associated with it, and have decided to set this policy aside in order to advance tax reform,” the group said in the joint statement. They added that they hope Congress could begin crafting and voting on the tax changes sometime in the fall.
Study: Ultra-Low NOx Natural Gas Engines Exceed Federal, State Emission Standards
By Lauren Tyler, NGT News.
The University of California, Riverside College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) and SoCalGas have announced the results of a new study on ultra-low emission natural gas heavy-duty engines.
According to UC Riverside, the study found that a Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Agency (Metro) bus equipped with an ultra-low emission natural gas engine performs significantly cleaner than its certification standards across all duty cycles.
By Lauren Tyler, NGT News.
The University of California, Riverside College of Engineering Center for Environmental Research and Technology (CE-CERT) and SoCalGas have announced the results of a new study on ultra-low emission natural gas heavy-duty engines.
According to UC Riverside, the study found that a Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Agency (Metro) bus equipped with an ultra-low emission natural gas engine performs significantly cleaner than its certification standards across all duty cycles.
Specifically, researchers tested the Cummins Westport ISL G near zero natural gas engine in a variety of conditions typical of a Metro bus. In all conditions, the engine performed even better than California’s toughest in the nation standard for smog-forming emissions. In some driving conditions, the report finds, emissions were practically zero.
“We have tested two of the ISL G near-zero 8.9 liter engines, one in a refuse hauler and one in a Metro bus. In both cases, the NOx emissions were surprisingly low and 99 percent cleaner than the current standard and 99.96 percent cleaner than the 2004 standard,” says Kent Johnson, associate research engineer for CE-CERT and lead researcher on this study.
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