RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.NextEra Energy Sees Opportunities in Biden Infrastructure, Clean Energy Plans
The Biden administration's infrastructure and clean energy plans offer significant opportunities for NextEra Energy, but it is too early to determine how Biden's tax plans might affect the company, Chairman and CEO Jim Robo said April 21.
"There's obviously a lot in [Biden's] plan that's very positive from a renewable standpoint," Robo said in a first-quarter earnings call. "We are excited to work with the administration on the plan that I think is really going to accelerate the decarbonization of the US economy ... over the next several years."
Biomethane in Transport “At Stake” Under EU Taxonomy Criteria, Warns EBA
The European Biogas Association (EBA) has welcomed the adoption of the EU Taxonomy by the European Commission (EC), which recognises biogas’ contribution to climate targets, but warned that the criteria adopted will put the use of biomethane in transport “at stake”.
According to the EBA, the decision to label biogas production from anaerobic digestion as a low-carbon activity recognises its valuable contribution to climate-neutrality, even though the chosen criteria are not ‘fully aligned’ with the Renewable Energy Directive (RED).
The regulation also supports the role of biogas and biomethane in providing renewable heat and power and recognises the need to integrate low-carbon gases, including biomethane, in existing gas grids. The EBA believes this sends a positive signal to investors and operators across the sector for further deployment of biogas and biomethane in the coming years.
Second Food Scraps-to-RNG Project Certified Under California LCFS GREET 3.0
Before January 2021, no food scraps-to-renewable natural gas (RNG) pathways had been certified by the California Air Resources Board (CARB) under CA-GREET 3.0 — the version of the life cycle analysis model used by the agency since 2019 to certify Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) pathways. Then in January, CARB used the rare Design-based pathway process to certify a pathway in the City of Napa, California for Zero Waste Energy (ZWE), as described in a recent BioCycle article.
That certification was noteworthy not only because of the process used, but also because of the ultra-low carbon intensity (CI) of the pathway at -165 gCO2e/MJ. Now CARB has certified a second food scraps-to-RNG pathway, this time for South San Francisco Scavengers (SSFS) located in South San Francisco, California. SSFS operates a ZWE digester system to process food scraps and green waste. The certification, effective on April 1, 2021, was at a CI of -79.91.
SoCalGas to Partner with SunLine Transit Agency to Test Innovative Technologies that Reduce Cost of Hydrogen Production
SoCalGas announced today it will demonstrate a groundbreaking technological combination that will produce hydrogen from renewable natural gas (RNG) at SunLine Transit Agency's hydrogen fueling station in Thousand Palms, California. The research project, called "H2 SilverSTARS," will produce renewable hydrogen to fuel SunLine's fleet of 17 hydrogen fuel cell electric buses and support further expansion. The combination of new technologies will make it possible to provide renewable hydrogen made from RNG at natural gas fueling stations—or any location near a natural gas pipeline. The goal is to produce emissions-free renewable hydrogen for fuel cell electric cars and other vehicles at a price competitive with gasoline.
Hydrogen-powered fuel cell electric vehicles are expected to play an important role in meeting California Governor Newsom's executive order requiring all new cars sold in the state be zero-emissions by 2035. As demand for these cars increases, Californians will need thousands more stations where they can fuel up with hydrogen.
53% of US NGV fuel in 2020 was RNG
Fifty-three percent of all on-road fuel used in natural gas vehicles in 2020 was renewable natural gas (RNG), according to new figures.
Natural Gas Vehicles for America (NGVAmerica) and the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (RNG Coalition) reported that RNG as a transport fuel grew by 25% over 2019 volumes, increasing 267% over the last five years.
The organisations report that in 2020, a total of 646 million gallons of natural gas were used as motor fuel. Of that, 345 million gallons were from renewable sources.
The Truth About Cows and Greenhouse Gas Emissions
At our dairy farm, I’ve been working to reduce methane emissions nearly my entire life. I can tell you it’s not a black and white issue (or a brown and white one, depending on your breed of cow). Here’s how sustainable farming works at our fifth-generation, 600-acre dairy farm in Deerfield, Massachusetts.
Cows make a lot of milk and a lot of manure; both are important to us. We make about 2,500 gallons of milk a day to feed our local communities. It travels on average 48 hours from farm to store. Each of our cows also creates about 80 pounds of manure a day. We reduce greenhouse gas emissions by turning methane from manure into renewable natural gas (RNG).
Conditional Approval for Bioenergy Devco’s Poultry AD project
Bioenergy Devco has secured conditional approval from Sussex County Council in Delaware to build one of the state’s first anaerobic digesters.
According to an article by the Delaware Business Times, Devco, based in Maryland, bought the former Perdue Farms AgriRecycle facility and continues to compost 30,000 tons of poultry waste from the site. Now, the company plans to extract biogas from the waste.
Fortistar to Build Minnesota RNG Project at Pine Bend
A new renewable natural gas (RNG) plant has been approved to be built at the Pine Bend Sanitary Landfill in Inver Grove Heights, Minnesota.
The plant, which will be the first of its kind in the state, will be built and run by Fortistar, a White Plains, New York-based investment firm that provides capital to build and manage companies that create green energy sources. It will be one of about 70 such facilities nationwide, reports the Star Tribune.
Phoenix-based Republic Services, which owns the Pine Bend landfill, will lease Fortistar the land for the 12,000-square foot facility. The RNG plant is expected to be operational by March 2022.
Wage Energy, RGMRM & Energir Join Forces on Quebec RNG
Waga Energy, the Mauricie Residual Materials Management Board (RGMRM) and Énergir are joining forces to launch a renewable natural gas (RNG) injection project at the Saint-Étienne-des-Grés landfill site, the first project of its kind on Canadian soil. The WAGABOX® technology that will be used for this project allows landfill site operators to recover the gas emanating from these sites in the form RNG, also known as biomethane.
As part of this project, Waga Energy is committing to purchasing the gas produced by waste products from the RGMRM for a twenty-year period. To recover it, Waga Energy will build a treatment unit on the site, using its WAGABOX® patented technology. Waga Energy will fund the unit’s construction and operation, as well as the costs of connecting the site to the local gas network. Énergir will purchase RNG production from Waga Energy, thus contributing to achieving the Quebec government’s objective of introducing a 10% share of renewable gas into the network by 2030.
CMA CGM Launches Low-Carbon Shipping with Biomethane
The CMA CGM Group has reached another milestone in its efforts to be carbon-neutral by 2050, by supporting the production of 12,000 tonnes of biomethane (equivalent to a year’s fuel consumption of two 1,400-TEU ships).
As of May 2021, the Group’s customers will be able to select biomethane via the Act with CMA CGM+ range of services, paving the way for a substantial reduction in the environmental impact of the shipping of their goods.
On this occasion, Rodolphe Saadé, Chairman and CEO of the CMA CGM Group, declared: “We have crossed a new step with the launch of the first low-carbon shipping offer based on biomethane. We know that there is still a long way to go to meet the commitments of the Paris Agreement. Achieving these goals do not rely on a single solution but on a set of initiatives and new technologies complimentary to each other.”
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