RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.US ethanol group vows to block RFS reforms tied to refinery bankruptcy
Washington (Platts)-
The US ethanol industry should resist any attempt to weaken the federal biofuel mandate as calls to reform the policy grow ahead of its 2022 expiration and in the wake of a Philadelphia refinery's bankruptcy, Bob Dinneen, president of the Renewable Fuels Association, said Tuesday.
Dinneen said refiner Philadelphia Energy Solutions is the current "poster child for the supposed economic harm" caused by the Renewable Fuel Standard, and yet he said its troubles have little to do with ethanol.
Clean energy is growing the economy and driving down emissions: Release of 2018 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook
By Charles Hernick and Lisa Jacobsen, Opinion Contributors, The Hill.
The economic expansion since 2009 is historic not just for its duration, but for the role that America’s energy sector has played in creating jobs and reducing carbon emissions. Over the past 12 months this trend has solidified and brought our domestic energy sector to its cleanest place in history.
While the energy jobs of our forefathers still exist, the most dynamic growth is now occurring in clean energy generation, according to the 2018 Sustainable Energy in America Factbook, released this week. This includes natural gas, solar, wind, hydropower, biofuels, and waste-to-energy — and energy efficiency. Together, these sectors support 3 million jobs nationwide.
John Kerry visits Olympia to push climate bills in Washington legislature
Former U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry was at the Capitol on Tuesday to talk to House and Senate Democrats.
By Enrique Perez De La Rosa, NW News Network.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has been pushing hard to pass a carbon tax proposal. Though it’s been unpopular with some businesses and Republicans, on Tuesday he brought out an important ally.
Inslee invited former Secretary of State John Kerry to Olympia to lobby for his proposal. It would impose a tax of $10 per metric ton of carbon emissions from fossil fuel consumption. Kerry said Washington state lawmakers have an opportunity to lead the nation by pricing carbon in a way that is fair and sensible.
Republic Services Adds to Sustainability Awards, Named to Barron's 100 Most Sustainable Companies List
PHOENIX, Feb. 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Republic Services, Inc. (NYSE: RSG) is pleased to announce that the Company was recognized on the first annual Barron's 100 Most Sustainable Companies list. Republic is the sole recycling and solid waste services provider to be included in the rankings.
Trump Signs Budget Bill With Relief for ‘Orphan’ Energy Technologies
After a brief government shutdown, lawmakers passed a two-year budget deal that includes several key energy provisions.
By Emma Foehringer Merchant, GreenTech Media.
Trillium CNG Expands Offerings to Include Hydrogen Fueling
Trillium CNG to build hydrogen fueling station for Orange County Transportation Authority
HOUSTON – Trillium CNG, one of the nation’s leading providers of compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle fueling facilities and part of the Love’s Family of Companies, announced plans to expand its services. The company will design, build and maintain hydrogen fueling stations. Trillium’s new services also include electric vehicle charging infrastructure, solar panel installation, and microgrid design and construction. The company will begin construction on its first hydrogen fueling station for fuel cell electric buses this summer for the Orange County Transportation Authority’s (OCTA) Santa Ana, California, facility.
Trillium CNG to build hydrogen fueling station for Orange County Transportation Authority
HOUSTON – Trillium CNG, one of the nation’s leading providers of compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicle fueling facilities and part of the Love’s Family of Companies, announced plans to expand its services. The company will design, build and maintain hydrogen fueling stations. Trillium’s new services also include electric vehicle charging infrastructure, solar panel installation, and microgrid design and construction. The company will begin construction on its first hydrogen fueling station for fuel cell electric buses this summer for the Orange County Transportation Authority’s (OCTA) Santa Ana, California, facility.
“While compressed natural gas remains a high priority for Trillium, diversification of Customer needs, products and services within the transportation industry is driving our expansion,” said Bill Cashmareck, managing director of Trillium CNG. “Each alternative fueling source has its own set of benefits, and we want to meet the needs of our Customers in as many ways as possible.”
Construction Underway for the Largest On-farm Dairy RNG Project in the U.S.
Amp Americas’ Second Anaerobic Digester Gas-to-RNG Facility to Convert Dairy Waste to Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) for Transportation Fuel
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SACRAMENTO (February 6, 2018) – Renewable Dairy Fuels (RDF), a business unit of AMP Americas, announced today from the 2018 Rethink Methane Symposium, that construction is underway on the country’s largest on-farm anaerobic digester-to-vehicle fuel operation. Located in Fair Oaks, Indiana, the dairy project will be the company’s second biogas facility producing renewable natural gas from dairy waste for transportation fuel.
Amp Americas’ Second Anaerobic Digester Gas-to-RNG Facility to Convert Dairy Waste to Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) for Transportation Fuel
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
SACRAMENTO (February 6, 2018) – Renewable Dairy Fuels (RDF), a business unit of AMP Americas, announced today from the 2018 Rethink Methane Symposium, that construction is underway on the country’s largest on-farm anaerobic digester-to-vehicle fuel operation. Located in Fair Oaks, Indiana, the dairy project will be the company’s second biogas facility producing renewable natural gas from dairy waste for transportation fuel.
Amp Americas received the first dairy waste-to-vehicle fuel pathway certified by California's Air Resources Board (CARB) for its first RNG project at Fair Oaks Farms in northwest Indiana. The project was also awarded a Carbon Intensity (CI) score of -254.94 gCO2e/MJ, the lowest ever issued by CARB. In addition to generating renewable American energy, on-farm anaerobic digester operations improve sustainability, environmental stewardship and energy independence.
The new facility will be 50 percent larger than RDF’s operation at Fair Oaks Farms and will be operational this summer. The site is located in Jasper County, Indiana, just a few miles from Fair Oaks Farms. Every day, three digesters located at three dairy farms will convert 950 tons of dairy waste from 16,000 head of milking cows into 100 percent renewable transportation fuel. The RNG will then be injected into the NIPSCO pipeline. Each of the digesters is a DVO, Inc. designed and built Mixed Plug Flow digester.
“Transportation is now the largest source of greenhouse gases in the U.S., and a major source of smog-causing pollution. It is more important than ever to drive further adoption of clean and efficient domestic RNG within the trucking industry,” said Grant Zimmerman, CEO at AMP Americas. “There isn’t enough RNG being produced to meet customer demand. Our new project will help make strong headway toward closing the supply gap.”
To learn more about AMP Americas and its RDF digester projects, visit AMP Americas at the Rethink Methane Conference in Sacramento on February 7, 2018. CEO Grant Zimmerman will moderate the “Encouraging Private Investment in RNG” panel at 1:55 p.m. PST.
AMP Americas continues to expand its national footprint and to invest heavily in dairy RNG projects by partnering with dairy farmers across the country to bring more ultra-low CI gas to market. The company plans to more than double its dairy gas output by mid-2018, and aims to deliver Amp Renew, its 100 percent RNG product, to all 20 of its fueling stations as it brings on future projects.
About Amp Americas
Amp Americas operates three business units: Renewable Dairy Fuels (RDF), Amp Renew and Amp CNG. RDF produces 100% renewable natural gas from dairy waste. RDF's anaerobic digester at Fair Oaks Farms in Indiana received the first dairy waste-to-vehicle fuel pathway certified by California's Air Resources Board (CARB). The project was also awarded a CI score of -254.94 gCO2e/MJ, the lowest ever issued by CARB. Amp Renew sources renewable gas from RDF and third party RNG developers to supply fuel to fleet customers through both owned and contracted station infrastructure. A member of the Department of Energy’s National Clean Fleets Partnership, Amp CNG builds, owns and operates a growing network of CNG fueling stations for long-haul trucking fleets. Visit www.ampamericas.com.
Media Contact:
VineSprout PR for Amp Americas
Ben Pavlovic
312-961-3919
ben@vinesprout.com
Republic, Waste Management recognized in 'Sustainability Yearbook'
Republic Services was recognized in the RobecoSAM Sustainability Yearbook with a "gold" rating, one of only eight companies in North America to earn that distinction. "We take great pride in our role as responsible stewards of the nation's recycling and waste materials," CEO Don Slager said in a statement.
Waste Management earned a "bronze" rating. No other North American waste and recycling companies were included.
By Cody Boteler, Waste Dive.
What’s the real story behind Philadelphia Energy Solutions’ bankruptcy, crude oil, and the Renewable Fuel Standard?
By Joelle Simonpietri, Special to The Biofuels Digest
On Jan 21st 2018, Carlyle-backed Philadelphia Energy Solutions (PES), the largest refinery complex on the U.S. east coast at 335,000 barrels per day, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, blaming Renewable Fuel Standard(RFS) compliance costs. In the week since the filing, the Washington Examiner reports several other small refiners have piled on, asking the Environmental Protection Agency to waive the Renewable Volume Obligations under the RFS.
Argonne National Labs and Energy Vision Release Case Studies Demonstrating Success of Renewable Natural Gas as a Transport Fuel
NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and the sustainable energy NGO Energy Vision today released two case studies of successful projects that were among the first to produce Renewable Compressed Natural Gas (R-CNG) vehicle fuel using anaerobic digesters to capture biogases from decomposing organic waste.
Energy Vision and Argonne produced the studies jointly. One study looks at Fair Oaks Farms, an Indiana dairy cooperative with roughly 36,000 cows. It converts manure to R-CNG using a large anaerobic digester, and uses the fuel to power its milk tanker trucks. The other study assesses the Sacramento BioDigester, the first food-waste digester in California to turn commercial organic waste into R-CNG vehicle fuel using anaerobic digestion.
NEW YORK, Feb. 1, 2018 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The US Department of Energy's Argonne National Laboratory and the sustainable energy NGO Energy Vision today released two case studies of successful projects that were among the first to produce Renewable Compressed Natural Gas (R-CNG) vehicle fuel using anaerobic digesters to capture biogases from decomposing organic waste.
Energy Vision and Argonne produced the studies jointly. One study looks at Fair Oaks Farms, an Indiana dairy cooperative with roughly 36,000 cows. It converts manure to R-CNG using a large anaerobic digester, and uses the fuel to power its milk tanker trucks. The other study assesses the Sacramento BioDigester, the first food-waste digester in California to turn commercial organic waste into R-CNG vehicle fuel using anaerobic digestion.
"These projects are trail blazers, and their experience bodes well for the future of renewable natural gas," said Matt Tomich, president of Energy Vision. "Their success can serve as models for other places with large organic waste streams, which is virtually every urban and rural setting in the country."
"R-CNG can achieve the greatest GHG reductions of any transportation fuel today -- 70% or more as compared to gasoline or diesel," said Marianne Mintz of Argonne National Laboratory's Energy System Division.
Mintz and Tomich co-authored the case studies.
R-CNG derived from organic waste is chemically similar to geologic compressed natural gas (CNG), and can be used in the same applications: heating/cooling, generating electricity, or fueling vehicles. But unlike fossil CNG, it's a renewable fuel. According to Argonne National Labs GREET model, R-CNG from anaerobic digestion of food waste is net-carbon negative over its lifecycle, including production, use and avoided emissions. That means making and using it results in lower atmospheric GHG than if the fuel were never made or used. R-CNG derived from a food waste digester meets or exceeds international goals of reducing GHG emissions 80% from 2005 levels by 2050.
Nationwide, renewable natural gas has grown over 70% annually in recent years -- facilitated by inclusion in the EPA's Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS2), which sets a minimum volume for the amount of renewable fuel that must be used in the transportation sector. Renewable natural gas production for transportation totaled 151 million gasoline gallon equivalents (GGEs) in 2017, up from 125M GGEs in 2016 and 90M GGEs in 2015.
Don’t miss an update—join our weekly newsletter below.