RNG NEWS
Passengers Make Ireland's First Journey on RNG Bus
Bus travelers in Cork were the first passengers to ride a ‘green bus’ in Ireland on Monday, March 25. With zero carbon emissions, the biomethane-powered bus is a viable alternative for Ireland’s public bus fleet, and the biogas bus has been part of national trials looking at green bus performance, air quality impacts and CO2 emissions, among other criteria.
Biomethane is a clean, renewable gas that is 98 percent methane. Also known as green gas, it can be used interchangeably with conventional fossil-fuel natural gas, meaning it can be added to the existing gas grid. The majority of European capital cities now run their buses on gas, resulting in lower carbon emissions and better air quality in cities.
By Renewable Energy Magazine
CEDIGAZ Launches New Report and Database on the Global Growth of RNG
The biomethane sector is booming worldwide. There will soon be more than 1,000 biomethane production plants operating in thirty-four countries, up from 720 at year-end 2017. Long centered in Europe, the green gas sector is indisputably going global.
Since 2010, world biomethane production has increased exponentially, reaching three billion cubic meters in 2017. In Europe, biomethane use is spreading across the continent. There are now nineteen European producing countries, whose output totalled nearly 2 bcm in 2017. The United States is now world leader for the use of biomethane as vehicle fuel, further to its production surge of 2014-2017 and driven by federal and state regulations. The fact that China and India have recently adopted biogas upgrading technology promises to be a game changer. Both countries have set ambitious biomethane production targets and figure as huge emerging markets. In Central and South America, Brazil is taking regulatory steps to exploit its huge potential.
By Cedigaz
Air Liquide Inaugurates New Tokyo Innovation Campus
Illustrating the Tier One company’s open innovation approach, the new facility in Yokosuka houses 200 Air Liquide employees in a new state-of-the-art 8,000 square metre site with eight laboratories and six pilot platforms.
The new campus will focus on developing advanced materials, especially for the manufacture of ‘next generation’ semiconductors, flexible displays, energy storage and distribution.
R&D teams, digital specialists, experts in customer applications and teams dedicated to exploring new markets will accelerate the development of solutions to improve energy efficiency, reduce carbon footprint and develop new energies, such as hydrogen and biomethane.
By Joanna Sampson, Gas World
Energir Adoption of New Regulation of RNG Delivered by a Distributor
Énergir is pleased with the adoption of the Regulation respecting the quantity of renewable natural gas to be delivered by a distributor. Announced earlier today by Minister of Energy and Natural Resources Jonatan Julien, this regulation establishes a governing framework for one of the objectives of the 2030 Energy Policy Action Plan.
The regulation sets the minimum quantity of RNG produced in Québec and to be injected by a natural gas distributor at 1% of the total quantity of natural gas the distributor distributes as of 2020, and progressively increases that quantity to set it as of 2025 at 5% of the total quantity of natural gas distributed.
By Futures Trading Charts
SoCalGas Reduces Price of CNG at Fueling Stations
Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) is lowering the price of compressed natural gas at all of its 13 public access natural gas vehicle fueling stations by 12 cents per gallon beginning April 1, 2019.
The utility is able to offer a reduced price by returning revenue generated from the sale of Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) credits to customers through a California Public Utilities Commission approved program, according to SoCalGas.
By Green Fleet
Integrating Renewable Natural Gas
Renewable natural gas (RNG) is carbon-neutral energy created from decomposing organic waste. Methane emissions from municipal landfills, wastewater treatment plants, farms, and industries can be captured, refined and converted into renewable energy.
RNG is not a fossil fuel and does not add carbon to the environment. Even more importantly, RNG captures and converts methane from waste treatment facilities, preventing the release of emissions that are 25 times more harmful than CO2. This significantly reduces the carbon footprint of energy consumption while lowering greenhouse gas emissions.
By Gas Technology, Control Engineering
DTE Biomass Energy Commissions First Dairy RNG Project in Wisconsin
DTE has begun operations at its first dairy-based renewable natural gas (RNG) project in Wisconsin at Dairy Dreams, LLC, a farm in Casco. Manure generated by the cow herd at Dairy Dreams, LLC is collected in an anaerobic digester, where methane gas is generated and captured. This methane gas is then refined to meet pipeline-quality standards, then trucked to a DTE owned facility in Newton, WI, where it is injected into a natural gas transmission line, and then ultimately used as an alternative vehicle fuel.
While DTE currently operates five landfill gas-based RNG projects, this is the company’s first dairy based project. In the coming weeks, DTE is expected to begin operating RNG facilities with three other dairy farms in the state and will also begin construction on three additional Wisconsin dairy RNG projects by this summer.
By Hoard’s Dairyman
City of Toronto Advances RNG Projects
The City of Toronto, Ontario has begun installing the first of what could be four facilities to produce large quantities of renewable natural gas (RNG) from the collection and processing of residential source separated organics (SSO) and solid waste. The initial project will upgrade the more than 5 million cubic meters of biogas produced annually through anaerobic digestion of residential SSO at the recently expanded Dufferin Organics Processing Facility. Installation began in February 2019 and the first gas molecules are expected to flow by the end of this year or early in 2020.
Under consideration are three additional facilities. One would be installed to upgrade biogas from Toronto’s second and larger anaerobic digestion facility at a site known as Disco Road. The other two would upgrade landfill gas at solid waste sites — the active Green Lane Landfill, about two hours southwest of Toronto, and the Keele Valley Landfill, just north of the city, which was closed 20 years ago.
By Peter Gorrie, BioCycle
Biomethane from Wastewater Solids to Supply 9,600 UK Households with Energy
In winter 2019, the German biogas plant manufacturer WELTEC BIOPOWER has started building a biomethane plant near Pontefract, West Yorkshire, UK. The client is Lanes Farm Energy, a gas-to-grid project developed by Aqua Consultants. Tel Sultan, director of Lanes Farm Energy said "After in-depth discussions with over ten technology providers, WELTEC was selected to be our partner to deliver the technology." The plant will go live in late 2019 and deliver c7.3 million m³ of biomethane to the UK gas distribution network. This amount of eco-friendly natural gas equivalent is sufficient to supply about 9,600 households with sustainable energy, 24/7.
By Water & Wastewater International
Governor Cuomo Announces Approval of Clean Energy Food Waste Recycling Facility on Long Island
Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced the Board of Trustees of the Long Island Power Authority voted to approve the first stand-alone large-scale anaerobic digester - a type of food waste recycling facility - in the New York City metropolitan area. The project, which will be operational in 2020, will produce four megawatts of clean energy and reduce greenhouse gas emissions on Long Island by 85,000 metric tons a year, the equivalent to removing 18,000 cars from the road. The clean energy project directly supports Governor Cuomo's Green New Deal, a clean energy and jobs agenda that puts New York State on a path to a carbon-free economy and supports the State's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030.
By New York State