RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Santek Making Major Progress with Gas-capture RNG Program at Landfill
Santek Waste Services, which manages the Bradley County Landfill, is in the process of building a renewable natural gas plant to turn gas created by the landfill into usable natural gas.
Cheryl Dunson of Santek Waste Services shared updates on this project with the Bradley Sunrise Rotary Club recently.
"It's currently ongoing, and part of it has been completed," Dunson said.
By Christy Armstrong, Cleveland Daily Banner
Align RNG Break Ground on Largest RNG Project in North Carolina
Dominion Energy and Smithfield Foods, Inc. are pleased to announce that the companies are breaking ground on North Carolina’s largest renewable natural gas (RNG) project through their joint venture, Align Renewable Natural Gas (RNG)SM. Located in Duplin and Sampson counties, this project will generate enough energy to power more than 3,500 homes annually upon completion. Align RNG is a multi-state joint venture between Dominion Energy and Smithfield that will capture methane emissions from hog farms and convert them into RNG to power homes and businesses.
“Breaking ground on this project with Dominion Energy is an exciting first step in bringing Align RNG to life,” said Kraig Westerbeek, senior director of Smithfield Renewables and hog production environmental affairs for Smithfield Foods. “This project implements proven ‘manure-to-energy’ technology across a number of farms to produce reliable renewable energy for our community and contributes to our company’s ambitious goal to reduce our greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions 25% by 2025.”
By West
Middlebury College to Use RNG to Meet Renewable Energy Goals
With declining enrollments coupled with ever increasing overhead, surviving as a small college these days is more of a challenge.
This year alone, three small, private Vermont colleges have closed their doors: Southern Vermont College, Green Mountain College and the College of St Joseph, and Marlboro College has merged with the University of Bridgewater in Connecticut.
In Vermont, one of the country’s elite small colleges continues to not only weather the financial challenges but also thrive.
By Bruce Edwards, Vermont Business Magazine
U.S. Investors Interested in Waste-to-energy Market
U.S. investors are beginning to smell an opportunity in the waste-to-energy market, where livestock dung and food garbage is traded. Interest is being fueled by new state laws and by demand from companies such as UPS Inc.
After a lull in investor interest stretching back a decade, attention to “anaerobic digestion” waste-to-energy is surging in the United States, developers in the sector have said.
Renewable fuel options are drawing increasing investor demand amid concerns about climate change and environmental, social and governance issues, especially in Europe.
By Patrick Temple-West, Los Angeles Times
University of South Florida's RNG NEWgenerator Could Help Communities
Flowers are blooming in an unconventional spot. It's a vertical hydroponic wall attached to a small generator.
"Which is basically making use of the nutrients and water recovered from the waste water that our system is treating," explained University of South Florida researcher Jorge Calabria.
The mini sewage system is called the NEWgenerator. It was developed by USF engineering professor Dr. Daniel Yeh and his research team.
By Fox13
California Project Converting Dairy Waste into RNG
Cow manure is getting a new use in California.
Southern California Gas and Calgren Dairy Fuels have teamed up on a project to create a dairy renewable natural gas facility and to produce a fuel for alternate vehicles, Kallanish Energy reports.
The project is located in the Central Valley in the community of Pixley and is just beginning operations.
The facility is the first of its kind in California and is expected to be the largest dairy biogas operation in the U.S. when completed later this year.
By Kallanish Energy
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
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