RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Munich Airport Receives Innovation Award for Passenger Bus Powered by Biogas
Great recognition for a concept for resource-efficient passenger transportation at Munich Airport. The Association of the German Gas Industry has awarded this year's Innovation Prize in the "Mobility & Transport" category to the pilot test of a passenger bus that is used at the airport and runs on liquid methane. The project has now been honored at a ceremony at the House of Innovation in Berlin. At Munich Airport, "Gas Innovations for the Energy Turnaround" were developed in cooperation with the start-up company CM Fluids from Rohrbach. Together with other partner companies, the award winners have realized a particularly innovative drive concept for the passenger bus and thus successfully implemented "ideas for sustainable and environmentally conscious mobility of the future."
As part of the pilot project at Munich Airport, a passenger bus originally powered by diesel from the airport's vehicle fleet was converted to a climate-friendly drive system using liquid methane and thus made fit for the future. With the patented drive concept "CMF drive" the bus was equipped with a generator-electric drive. The passenger bus is powered by a combustion engine and will in future be fueled with regeneratively produced biogas. The energy generated by the engine is temporarily stored in a buffer battery, which in turn supplies the bus's electric drive axle with electricity. After the successful conversion, the bus will be particularly energy-efficient and even climate-neutral when refueled with biomethane.
By Aviation Pros
Closing Out the Year with Optimism
It’s what I like to call Windtober in Minnesota, that few-week period where the fall chill and lingering warm seem to battle each other, and much of what’s in your yard—for me, my Styrofoam Halloween cemetery—blows away during those gusty days. The pretty colors fade to brown and the trees are stripped of their leaves seemingly overnight—winter is around the corner.
We’re all grateful to be able to warm our homes or businesses at the push of a button. For some, that might involve tapping into a stockpile of wood pellets. Manufacturers have been readying for the season for many months, and despite the uncertainty the year has brought, things are looking good. As industry stakeholders often articulate, there are always unknowns, including heating degree days, market demand and other heating fuel prices. But this year has added another, and that’s the downstream effects of fiber constraints.
By Anna Simet, Biomass Magazine
A Practical Pathway for Our National Renewable Energy Future: Part 2
Reducing carbon output from the American power grid is an essential goal, meriting urgent and committed attention. However, while accelerating the growth of low-carbon technology on the current U.S. grid for decarbonization is laudable (suggesting that all changes could be made within 10 years), it is currently impractical and enormously risky. Part 1 of this four-part series introduced the grid at the edge, how it works, and dealing with risks. Part 2 discusses how to achieve a low-carbon renewable energy power system on the new grid and the dangers of a 10-year timeline.
How to Achieve Low-Carbon Renewable Energy Power System Using New Grid
Achieving the energy goals of a low-carbon renewable energy power system program requires a paradigm shift in the power generation, transmission and distribution (T&D) of America's energy system. This paradigm shift entails augmenting and/or partially replacing the current power system with different methods of producing, transmitting, and delivering energy. Creating a generation system dominated by renewable energy requires significant modifications and additions to current T&D systems. This new generation mix and geographic redistribution needs a new grid approach for interconnection and operation.
By Thomas A. McClimans, T & D World
Microferm Manure Digester Success with Five Under Construction in The Netherlands
The Netherlands will soon have 15 Microferms, of which two-thirds with a total biomethane production of approximately 3.2 million cubic meters (Nm3) per year. The rest produce green electricity and heat with a CHP. The five new Microferms are being built at dairy farms in Blokzijl (Overijssel), Boornbergum (Friesland), Lekkum (Leeuwarden), Ell (Limburg) and Achtmaal (Brabant). The installations produce 40 Nm3 of biomethane per hour from 12,000 to 16,000 tons of manure per year. The annual capacity is 320,000 Nm3 of biomethane that is suitable for distribution via any existing or new (natural) gas network. Thanks to one Microferm, approximately 240 households can heat and cook with the sustainable natural gas substitute all year round.
HoSt works together with the Jumpstart cooperative, an initiative of dairy company Friesland Campina. Within Friesland Campina’s Jumpstart initiative, HoSt is a qualified supplier of the Microferm mono-manure digester with a biomethane system. The Microferms under construction, and the two recently realized Microferms in the Dutch Koudum and Merselo, are Jumpstart projects. This collaboration facilitates the development of profitable manure digestion at dairy farmers for the production of sustainable energy and the reduction of greenhouse gases on the dairy farm and in the sector. In 2018, HoSt signed the first Jumpstart Microferm project. This biogas plant successfully produces sustainable gas in Merselo in the Dutch province Limburg.
By Renewable Energy Magazine
Building Electrification is Key to a Safe Climate Future
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is clear: In order to avoid the worst impacts of climate change, the world must dramatically reduce its carbon emissions and prevent global warming from exceeding 1.5 degrees Celsius. To achieve this, we must halve carbon emissions by 2030 and aim to fully decarbonize ("deep decarbonization") by 2050.
There’s new policy momentum around this pressing task, with ambitious proposals from presidential candidate Joe Biden, congressional Democrats and others recommending a suite of policies across all sectors of the economy. In order to achieve the necessary emissions cuts in the stubborn buildings sector, a broad swath of research concludes the same thing: The lowest-cost pathway to eliminate direct emissions from commercial and residential buildings is to electrify.
By GreenBiz
Renewable Natural Gas, the Energy Source Nobody's Talking About
The search for cleaner energy sources for transportation has taken trucking in some interesting directions, but one source is often overlooked or even dismissed: renewable natural gas. It's methane gas produced by decomposing organic matter from sources like landfills, dairy farms, and wastewater treatment plants. It can be economically collected and used to power trucks. It's already a source of fuel for many refuse collection fleets. Hugh Donnell of Cummins Westport, maker of the engines that turn this harmful waste gas into motive power, describes the challenges and benefits of wider RNG adoption as a truck fuel.
By HDT Talks Trucking
RFA Comments on Colorado GHG Reduction Plan
In September, Colorado released a public comment draft of its Greenhouse Gas Pollution Reduction Roadmap which details proposed steps the state can take toward meeting the near-term goals of reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) pollution 26% by 2025 and 50% by 2030 from 2005 levels.
Noting that transportation is one of the largest sources of GHG pollution, the Colorado plan suggests:
Transitioning to close to 100% electric cars on the road by 2050 and 100% market share for new vehicle sales of zero emissions trucks and buses by 2050; and
Adopting lower carbon fuels including advanced biofuels, renewable natural gas and hydrogen for hard to electrify sectors such as aviation and some heavy trucks.
In comments on the plan submitted Friday, Renewable Fuels Association Vice President of Regulatory Affairs Kelly Davis, told the Colorado Energy Office that the internal combustion engine is “far from dead – the fuel just needs to be changed” with a low-carbon or clean fuel standard that can help Colorado slash greenhouse gas pollution.
By Cindy Zimmerman,
Federal Regulators Take Notes from Wisconsin Farmers
Raised in America's Dairyland, David Ross, assistant administrator of the EPA Office of Water, remembers sitting in a meeting with other key players in the federal agency discussing nutrient management plans.
"Just out of curiosity I asked how many of them had ever written an NMP. Just two hands went up and one of them was mine," Ross said. "No one else in the room had ever written one, applied for one or worked with an agronomist creating one."
At that moment Ross decided it was important for EPA officials to get out of the office and get in touch with those dealing with all of the federal regulations.
By Colleen Kottke, Wisconsin State Farmer
Study: Natural Gas Refuse Trucks Versus Battery Electric...What's More Green?
NGVAmerica released a study at its Annual Industry Summit presenting a compelling case for why communities should continue to invest in new near-zero natural gas technology. Using New Jersey as a case study, NGVAmerica analyzed the costs and impact of transitioning that state’s entire 10,000 refuse truck fleet from diesel to both natural gas and battery electric.
Not only do natural gas vehicle (NGV) refuse trucks – fueled by renewable natural gas (RNG), or biomethane, derived from above ground sources – outperform their electric counterparts when it comes to total NOx emission reductions well-to-wheel, they reduce more harmful CO2-equivalent greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in total than the battery electric alternative. In terms of criteria pollutants, the NGV fleet reduce 14,000 tons of NOx compared to only 9,700 tons for the battery fleet. In terms of GHGs, NGVs reduce 10.6 million tons of CO2. The all-electric fleet only achieves a 9.2 million-ton GHG reduction.
By HDT Truckinginfo
With Transportation, We Should Stay Focused on the Prize of Clean Air
At first glance, it appears that California is once again leading by example in battling climate change and providing clean air to those that need it most. However, for residents of Los Angeles and the Central Valley who currently breathe the dirtiest air in the country, the governor’s September executive order to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars doesn’t go far enough.
The executive order’s goals are 15 and 25 years away. So it begs the question, what should California do between now and then? How is the state going to provide clean air to this generation?
By CalMatters
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