RNG NEWS
SoCalGas & Electrochaea Announce Commissioning of New Biomethanation Reactor System Pilot Project
Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) and Electrochaea today announced the commissioning of the nation's first scalable biomethanation reactor system at the U.S. Department of Energy's National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) Energy System Integration Facility in Golden, Colo. The technology uses renewable electricity to convert hydrogen into pipeline quality methane for use in homes, businesses and in transportation. Over the next 24 months, the project will assess the commercial viability of this power-to-gas approach to energy storage and decarbonization and provide insights into potential mega-watt scale system designs. The announcement was made in conjunction with NREL's third annual Partner Forum.
Biomethane, or renewable natural gas, is created through this bioreactor system in a two-step process. First, renewable electricity, generated by the sun, passes through an electrolyzer where water molecules are split into hydrogen and oxygen, storing the renewable electricity as hydrogen gas. The newly-created "green" hydrogen is combined with carbon dioxide and piped into the reactor where archaea microorganisms produce renewable natural gas by consuming hydrogen and carbon dioxide and emitting methane. The system is capable of recycling carbon dioxide from a myriad of sources, such as ethanol plants and anaerobic digesters, preventing greenhouse gas emissions and displacing the consumption of fossil methane. The catalyst was originally developed at the University of Chicago and the basic methanation system was designed by Electrochaea and demonstrated in Europe.
By PR Newswire
Elected Official Highlights Benefits of Keeping RNG in California
Earlier this month, Calgren Dairy Fuels in neighboring Tulare County celebrated the completion of its renewable natural gas facility in Pixley, an operation that’s gathering biogas from multiple dairy farms and turning it into pipeline quality renewable methane. I couldn’t be more pleased that the San Joaquin Valley is adding renewable natural gas to the wind and solar renewable energy we already generate. Renewable natural gas makes dairy farming more sustainable and reduces pollution from California’s agricultural sector.
And yet, just as we begin to make real progress in creating renewable gas from our dairies, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) has decided that all homes and businesses in California must switch to electricity only, eliminating natural gas—and even renewable natural gas—as an energy source. They want no more gas home heating, no gas cooking or clothes dryers or gas water heaters. All those appliances will need to be changed out for electric appliances.
By David Couch, Bakersfield
Longmont, Colorado RNG Project from City's Wastewater Nears Completion
A new renewable natural gas (RNG) project is moving forward in the City of Longmont, Colo.
In late July, contractor CGRS Inc. brought in Maverick Steel Inc. to begin erecting the steel on a site at the northwest corner of the city’s wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). The steel provides the frame for an approximately 23,000-square-foot building for Longmont’s biogas treatment and RNG fueling station project, which will transform byproducts from the WWTP into renewable fuel for the city’s trash trucks.
The front side of the building will house approximately 10,000 square feet of administrative offices on two stories; the remaining 13,000 square feet will serve as the RNG fueling station.
By Betsy Lillian, NGT News
Charleston Company Investing in Renewable Energy
DTE Energy is partnering with Comerica Park to power the stadium with renewable energy through its MIGreenPower program on Wednesday, Aug. 14, including the evening home game between the Detroit Tigers and the Seattle Mariners. The ballpark's "Green Night" will offset 30.6 metric tons of carbon emissions, the environmental equivalent of eliminating emissions produced by an average vehicle driving 75,000 miles. Green Night is part of a broader Tigers initiative to promote sustainability at the ballpark.
The first 10,000 fans entering Comerica Park on August 14 will receive a MIGreenPower reusable cooler lunch bag. Fans who are DTE electric customers also will have an opportunity to sign up for MIGreenPower by visiting DTE information booths located at Gates A and B on the concourse.
By David Wren, The Post & Courier
Greenlane Renewables Warrants to Commence Trading on TSXV Under the Symbol “GRN.WT”
Greenlane Renewables Inc. (“Greenlane” or the “Company”) (TSXV: GRN) today announced that the warrants issued in connection with the Company’s private placement, which closed May 30, 2019 and Qualifying Transaction which closed June 3, 2019, (the "Warrants") have been conditionally approved for listing on the TSX Venture Exchange (the “Exchange”). The Warrants are expected to commence trading on or about August 12, 2019 under the symbol GRN.WT, subject to the Company satisfying the remaining requirements of the Exchange.
By Business Wire
Middletown’s Free Food Waste Disposal Program Turn Food into Biogas to be Processed into RNG
Kim O’Rourke is encouraging residents to compost their food waste in an effort to meet the city’s goal of reducing and recycling 60 percent of its waste by 2024. The majority of the humus created from these scraps will be taken to Quantum BioPower in Southington.
The company turns the organic material into biogas, which can be used as a fuel to generate electricity, or further processed into renewable natural gas and transportation fuel.
“All municipalities are looking for additional ways to reduce their waste. This is one way we’re trying to educate the public that they can do something with their food waste other than putting it in the trash. This is a great option,” she said.
By Cassandra Day, Standford Advocate
Bioenergy DevCo Receives $106M Investment to Develop Anerobic Digestion Facilities
Bioenergy DevCo, a Columbia, MD-based global developer of anaerobic digestion facilities with more than 200 plants throughout the world that create renewable natural gas and healthy soil products, received its $106M first institutional investment from Newlight Partners LP.
The company intends to use to expand its operational presence in North America, working with municipalities and corporations to develop anaerobic digestion facilities that naturally transform organic waste into renewable natural gas and an organic soil amendment, reducing landfill waste and carbon emissions.
By Finsmes
Renewable Natural Gas Industry Leaders Send Letter to U.S. EPA Urging Importance of 2020 Cellulosic Volume that Accounts for All Available RNG
More than forty renewable natural gas (RNG) industry leaders sent a letter to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler asking him to set the Renewable Fuel Standard’s (RFS) 2020 cellulosic biofuel requirement at a level of at least 650 million gallons to account for all RNG that will be produced and available next year.
The letter comes on the heels of comments from more than two dozen RNG stakeholders to EPA last week at the public hearing on the agency’s proposed RFS 2020 biofuel volumes. Consistent with those comments, the RNG industry letter impresses on EPA the importance of setting the 2020 cellulosic biofuel volume requirement at a level that incorporates all RNG produced and available next year, including new volumes from more than 30 production sites currently being built. The letter also underscores the common-sense notion that the cellulosic biofuel volume requirement should be adjusted upward to account for the impact of small refinery exemptions (SREs) granted by EPA.
By Waste Management
UCLA Study Encourages U.S. to Maximize Benefits from Use of Waste-Derived Fuels
The US could potentially produce enough energy by harnessing waste each year to power the states of Oregon and Washington, according to recent analysis from University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) researchers.
The findings, published in the journal Nature Energy by UCLA industrial ecologist and energy economist Deepak Rajagopal and urban planning doctoral candidate Bo Liu, also show that the energy from waste would reduce the equivalent of 37 million cars’ worth of carbon from the environment.
“The benefit of using waste is that we are generating waste anyway,” said Liu. “It is a leftover resource that we have not conventionally thought about.”
By Biofuels International
Clean Energy Supplying RNG to Power Fleets Across Multiple Sectors
The demand for clean, cost-effective renewable natural gas (RNG) as a transportation fuel continues to rise. Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (Nasdaq: CLNE) announced it has inked contracts to provide its Redeem™ renewable natural gas (RNG) to power fleets across multiple sectors that include transit, trucking, airports, solid waste and service vehicles.
Redeem became commercially available in 2013 and is derived from capturing biogenic methane that is naturally created by the decomposition of dairy, landfill, and wastewater treatment plant waste. As a vehicle fuel, Redeem enables at least 70 percent reduction in carbon emissions when displacing diesel or gasoline.
By Business Wire