RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.The US Has a Low-Carbon Vehicle Fuel — But It's Being Thrown Away
By Rebecca Gasper, Sustainable Brands.
The United States generates millions of tons of food scraps; inedible fats, oils and greases; sewage and manure. Some of this organic waste is used for energy or fertilizer, but most of it — around 50 million tons a year — is sent to landfills, incinerated or otherwise left to decompose.
Catalina Pacific® Stakes Out Environmental Leadership Position By Converting Its California Ready-Mix Truck Fleet To Clean Energy’s Redeem™
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (Nasdaq: CLNE) announced today that it will begin supplying its Redeem™ renewable natural gas (RNG) to 118 Catalina Pacific®, a CalPortland® Company, ready-mix concrete trucks which operate throughout Southern California. By converting these trucks to Redeem, Catalina Pacific® will operate the cleanest ready-mix concrete fleet in the United States, reducing greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) by over 70 percent and smog-causing NOx emissions by over 90 percent (compared to a 2010 diesel engine).
Clean Energy Adding Three CNG Stations on U.S.-Canada Trade Corridor
Clean Energy Fuels Corp. has been awarded a contract to construct three compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling stations in Ontario for Union Energy Solutions Ltd. Partnership (UES), an unregulated affiliate of Union Gas, an Enbridge Company, a major Canadian natural gas storage, transmission and distribution company.
The stations – which will be in London, Windsor and Napanee – will make fueling with CNG possible along Highway 401 in Ontario, one of the busiest highways in North America and an important trade corridor between Canada and the U.S., notes Clean Energy.
Betsy Lillian, NGT News.
Amp Americas Celebrates Opening of Buda, TX CNG Station
Amp Americas has announced the grand opening of its new public-access compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling station in Buda, Texas, with US Foods serving as the station’s
anchor fleet.
The new Amp CNG station, supplied by Texas-produced natural gas, is the City of Buda’s first CNG fueling station and Amp’s eighth in the state. Amp’s other stations in Texas are located in Amarillo, Harrold, Waco, Brock, Rosenberg, Sweetwater and Kerrville. The new station brings Amp’s total CNG station network to 20.
By Betsy Lillian, NGT News.
Renewable Natural Gas Facilities on the Rise
By Transport Topics.
The Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas released a new map and project database of renewable natural gas production facilities in North America.
The refreshed database reveals that there are now at least 76 operational RNG facilities in the United States and Canada, representing 85% growth from the 41 projects that were built between 1982 and 2014.
The coalition established a goal in 2015 to double the number of RNG production facilities in North America by 2025. There were 51 RNG facilities at the time. The new database shows that the North American RNG industry is on pace to reach the goal in half that time: an additional 23 RNG production facilities are under construction and another 25 have reached stages of substantial development prior to commencing construction, according to the Sacramento, Calif.-based group.
“Since the environmental benefits of RNG were ruled eligible to generate D3 Renewable Identification Numbers in 2014, private capital has funded dozens of new projects all across the continent, and dozens more are in process,” Jay Hopper, vice president of Aria Energy, said in a statement.
The database and map are on the RNG coalition’s website and will be updated as new production facilities are brought online.
Read the full press release HERE.
GAIN Clean Fuel announces expansion of its renewable natural gas offering
Appleton, Wis. – April 23, 2018 – U.S. Gain President Mike Koel is no stranger to taking risks. He’s the force behind the business division’s formation in 2009 when he identified the demand in providing fleet operators with environmentally-friendly, cost-effective alternative fuel options. Since then, GAIN® Clean Fuel has worked cooperatively with transportation companies across the country to supply compressed natural gas (CNG) as an alternative to diesel, which has become the fuel of choice for many based on significant financial and environmental benefits.
Over the last year, Koel and his team have embraced a new challenge – to become a leading renewable natural gas (RNG) supplier by procuring processed methane generated from landfills, livestock manure and wastewater treatment facilities in an effort to improve local air quality and provide fleets access to an even cleaner fuel.
Appleton, Wis. – April 23, 2018 – U.S. Gain President Mike Koel is no stranger to taking risks. He’s the force behind the business division’s formation in 2009 when he identified the demand in providing fleet operators with environmentally-friendly, cost-effective alternative fuel options. Since then, GAIN® Clean Fuel has worked cooperatively with transportation companies across the country to supply compressed natural gas (CNG) as an alternative to diesel, which has become the fuel of choice for many based on significant financial and environmental benefits.
Over the last year, Koel and his team have embraced a new challenge – to become a leading renewable natural gas (RNG) supplier by procuring processed methane generated from landfills, livestock manure and wastewater treatment facilities in an effort to improve local air quality and provide fleets access to an even cleaner fuel.
Through vertical integration, flexible business management and strategic risk-taking, GAIN Clean Fuel has recently expanded availability of its RNG offering through the now operational RNG plant at Woodland Meadows Recycling and Disposal Facility in Van Buren Township, Michigan. Woodland Meadows is a regional facility that provides safe and convenient disposal services for communities, businesses and industries serving the Detroit Metro and surrounding areas.
“RNG is one of the few alternative fuels that creates air quality improvements during the fuel production process and also when used in actual transportation,” says Bryan Nudelbacher, director of business development for GAIN Clean Fuel. “This truly positions companies using RNG for sustainability success.”
GAIN Clean Fuel, in partnership with Ameresco, Inc., a leading independent provider of comprehensive energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions, and Waste Management, Inc., the largest environmental solutions provider in North America, is bringing to the market renewable natural gas (generated from the landfill) for use within the transportation sector.
Traditionally, landfill gas is flared onsite, but current technologies allow for the harnessing of this gas and its conversion into a cleaner renewable transportation fuel.
In a well-to-wheel heavy-duty trucking comparison to diesel, RNG produced from landfill gas can provide a reduction in greenhouse gas, nitrous oxide and particulate matter emissions by 85 percent, 75 percent and 98 percent respectively. Well-to-wheel comparisons consider the lifecycle emissions impact of a product—from production through usage and disposal—providing users a realistic comparison verses simply comparing tailpipe emissions.
With several other landfill, dairy farm, and wastewater treatment facility projects in the works, GAIN Clean Fuel is dedicated to expanding availability of RNG.
“We are committed to working closely with various producers throughout the process by obtaining gas rights, ensuring compliance, investing in clean-up equipment and project financing to dispense the highest quality RNG to the most forward-thinking organizations,” says Koel. “Furthermore, we're focused on expanding our station network to maximize accessibility to RNG, and are excited about the partnerships to come.”
Biogas needs real consideration as a truly clean alternative to natural gas
The only byproducts here are clean water and fertilizer.
By John Stolz, Director of the Center for Environmental Research and Education at Duquesne University, via Pittsburgh City Paper.
Since 2004, there have been more than 11,000 natural-gas wells drilled in Pennsylvania.
At the same time, natural gas prices have plummeted by 80 percent. Shell is building a petrochemical plant in Beaver County to use the ethane generated at wells. But at what cost?
Can Biogas CHP Help Duke University Meet Aggressive Climate Goals?
Duke University is exploring what it takes to acquire and transport renewable biogas from North Carolina hog farms for what may turn out to be a new, microgrid-ready combined heat and power (CHP) plant on the university’s main campus.
By Andrew Burger, MicroGrid Knowledge.
Bipartisan Group of Farm State Senators tell EPA to Stop Giving Big Oil Refiners a Pass on Biofuels Rules
Bipartisan senators on Tuesday asked the EPA to stop issuing waivers that allow oil refiners to avoid obligations to blend biofuels into gasoline.
EPA has reportedly issued 25 of the "hardship" waivers, usually reserved for small, distressed refiners who cannot meet federal biofuel blending requirements.
The senators pressed EPA to provide justification for why the agency has allowed an unusual number of large, profitable refiners to sidestep the biofuels mandate.
By Tom DiChristopher, CNBC News.
RNG Bill Moves Forward in California
By NGT News.
April 17 - Today, the California Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications advanced a pro-renewable natural gas (RNG) bill sponsored by the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (RNG Coalition).
S.B.1440, introduced by State Sen. Ben Hueso, would create additional market certainty for projects that use the state’s food waste, agricultural waste, landfill gas and wastewater resources to create RNG. The bill would do so by establishing an RNG procurement program for California’s natural gas utilities, the coalition explains.
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