RNG NEWS
Vanguard Renewables Anaerobic Digester Project
Up a steep dirt road in Haverhill, Massachusetts, past a set of old farm buildings, sits one of the newest anaerobic digesters in the country. It's the fourth facility of its kind from Vanguard Renewables, with many more on the way.
On a bright and brisk December afternoon, a tanker truck has pulled up to empty its liquefied organic contents into the underground receiving pit. The system can process up to 120 tons per day, but it will take multiple days for the slurry to actually make it into the adjacent digester domes.
By, Cole Rosengren, Waste Dive
Wasatch Resource Recovery Announces Utah's First Operational Anaerobic Digester
Throwing out food no longer means it has to go to waste thanks to a new facility in Utah that converts food waste to clean, renewable energy.
Utah's first and only anaerobic food waste digester opened to the public Thursday for an open house highlighting how the center will turn food waste into renewable energy.
Wasatch Resource Recovery, a public-private partnership between ALPRO Energy & Water and the South Davis Sewer District, will take in about 700 tons of food waste daily. When it expands its operation in the near future, that number will double to about 1,400 tons.
By, Lauren Bennett, Desert News Utah
The H.W. Hill Renewable Natural Gas Landfill Project
As a species, we create an exorbitant amount of garbage. To call our love of packaging “excessive” would be understating the problem. Obsessive might be a better word for it, since nearly everything we consume is either boxed, bottled or wrapped in plastic. The figures are staggering, really.
Consider that every American generates, on average, 4.4 pounds of trash daily. This means that your typical American male throws away his weight in garbage every 45 days or so. And if those numbers aren’t enough to make you dizzy, just multiply 4.4 pounds per day by our population of 325.7 million (as of 2017). That’s almost 1.5 trillion pounds of trash entering our nation’s landfills. Every. Day.
By, Dac Collins, Columbia Insight
Aemetis Begins Permitting, Construction of RNG Project
Aemetis Inc. announced today that it has initiated the permitting and construction phase of its multi-dairy renewable biomethane digester cluster. In July 2018, the California Department of Food & Agriculture awarded two matching grants for a total of $3 million to build biomethane digesters at the first two dairies in the Aemetis biogas project.
The CDFA grant program provides California state funding support for dairy digester projects to reduce methane emissions, decrease air pollution, improve the environment, and lower carbon emissions. In addition to the on-dairy covered lagoon digesters, Aemetis plans to construct a local pipeline designed to connect about a dozen dairies to the Aemetis biorefinery in Keyes, California, then clean the biomethane for use in ethanol production or for powering compressed renewable natural gas (RNG) vehicles.
By, Biomass Magazine
Study Confirms RNG as Economic Driver for Québec Regions
A new study has shown that in addition to propelling Québec's energy transition forward, renewable natural gas (RNG) production is a major driver for economic development in all regions of Québec. Those were the conclusions of a study conducted by Aviseo Consulting to evaluate the economic, tax and foundational impacts of RNG production for communities.
The impacts identified were based on the results of a study published in November 2018 showing that by 2030, Québec has the technical and economic potential1 to produce enough RNG to replace two thirds of the natural gas currently distributed in Québec with natural gas from renewable sources.
By, Newswire
Aria Energy, Constellation & Black Hills Energy Announces Production of RNG at David City Landfill
Aria Energy announces the commissioning of a landfill gas (LFG) to renewable natural gas (RNG) project at the Waste Connections-owned Butler County Landfill in David City, Neb.
Aria Energy constructed, owns and operates the project, which processes and purifies up to 1,000 cubic feet per minute of LFG into pipeline quality RNG.
LFG is produced naturally as waste decomposes and consists of roughly 50 percent methane. Landfills above a certain size are required to install a collection system to transport the gas to a collection facility to prevent it from rising into the atmosphere where it would become a greenhouse gas 21 times more potent than carbon dioxide. The captured LFG is purified into RNG which displaces the use of fossil fuels and can significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the community.
By, Compelo
Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative Offers Model as States Look to Cut Transmission Emissions
As a group of Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states begins to design a system to curb regional transportation emissions, planners are expected to turn to the decade-old Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative as a model. Experts say the initiative can provide a good starting point, but that important questions must be answered to translate the concept to transportation.
“We can’t simply cut and paste [the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative] and apply it to the transportation sector,” said Jordan Stutt, carbon programs director at environmental nonprofit the Acadia Center. “There are a lot of considerations that need to be made which are specific to the way we move people and goods.”
By, Sarah Shemkus, Energy News
Growth Energy Challenges EPA's Refinery Exemptions
Growth Energy filed a petition in the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s failure to address small refinery exemptions in its 2019 renewable volume obligation rulemaking, which was issued late last year.
“EPA’s inaction on addressing lost gallons due to small refinery exemptions in this rulemaking is a clear violation of law,” said Growth Energy CEO Emily Skor. “In doing nothing to remedy these and other deficiencies, EPA has again failed to meet its statutory obligation to ensure that annual RVOs are met each year. Today’s filing calls for greater accountability from EPA to ensure that every renewable fuel obligation is fulfilled as the law intended.
By, Farm Progress
Austrian-based Thöni Industriebetriebe GmbH to Construct Anaerobic Digestion Gas to Grid Plant
A contractor has been appointed to build an anaerobic digestion facility that will inject renewable gas produced from food waste to the grid in Aberdeen, Scotland.
The plant will power the multi-million-pound new TECA arena, conference centre and exhibition building, a part of the new AECC project which includes two on-site hotels, an energy centre, extensive landscaping and parking. The entire site is being built by Aberdeen City Council along with development partner Henry Boot Developments (HBD), and main contractor Robertson Group.
By, Ben Messenger, Waste Management World
North Carolina’s Alternative Gas Pilot Program Flares Up
North Carolina’s nascent biogas industry has witnessed significant progress in recent years. In March 2018, the Optima KV swine waste to renewable natural gas (“RNG”) project near Kenansville, North Carolina came online as the first RNG project in the state to inject RNG directly into the existing natural gas transportation system operated by Piedmont Natural Gas Company, Inc. (“Piedmont”).
With the success of the Optima KV project, other RNG projects are in process and more are sure to follow in light of North Carolina’s rich bioenergy resources. However, not long after the Optima KV project achieved commercial operation, the North Carolina Utilities Commission (the “Commission”) put the brakes on future development. RNG project developers and suppliers will now need to be accepted into a pilot program established by the Commission in order to be approved to interconnect with Piedmont’s existing natural gas transportation system.
By, E. Scott Bowers, IV & Joseph G. Tirone, The National Law Review