RNG NEWS
Stay up to date with the latest stories, insights, and announcements.Green Rock Energy Partners Announces Partnership with Renewable Power and Renewable Natural Gas Producer Bio Town Biogas
Green Rock Energy Partners LLC, a sustainable infrastructure focused private equity firm which invests in renewable energy companies and projects, acquired a stake in Bio Town Biogas LLC, a producer of renewable power that is expanding into renewable natural gas, in partnership with Bio Town Ag and lenders. Green Rock’s announcement of the partial acquisition, which closed in Q3 2021, is the firm’s first investment announcement.
Bio Town sources food waste, dairy manure, beef manure, and other agriculture waste to produce renewable electricity, renewable heat, and renewable natural gas. The project, located in Reynolds, Indiana, is expected to produce more than 42 million kilowatt-hours of renewable power per year, while also producing more than three million gallons of renewable fuel per year. Northern Indiana Public Service Company will provide the renewable power offtake, while United Energy Trading and others will provide the renewable natural gas offtake.
U.S. Gain Secures Dairy RNG Offtake with EnTech Solutions
U.S. Gain recently announced a new offtake agreement with EnTech Solutions at their agricultural biodigester near Madison, Wisconsin. This project is a partnership between EnTech Solutions, Northern Biogas and four local Dane County dairy farms where agricultural waste is processed in digester tanks to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) which will be used as an alternative fuel in the California transportation market.
The digester facility had previously produced electricity but has been repurposed to produce RNG that can be easily injected into the natural gas pipeline and distributed throughout the nation. In this case, U.S. Gain is sending RNG from Madison to their fleet customers in California where transportation-related emission reductions are a priority.
British Columbia Files LCFS Overhaul
British Columbia is proposing low-carbon fuel requirements for marine and aviation fuel and expanding the activities that can generate credits under new legislation updating the province's Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS).
The Canadian province's government filed legislation that would replace the original 14-year-old enabling legislation for the program, broadening the scope of both credit and deficit generation as well as who may participate in the program.
Digesters Help Dairies Reap Benefits of Reducing Emissions
Digesters are regaining popularity in the dairy industry as a way to reduce methane emissions and sell carbon credits. While the U.S. dairy industry has committed to carbon neutrality by 2050, there is a shorter deadline to meet the 2030 goal of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“In terms of animal agriculture, one of the largest focuses is on methane emissions,” said Patrick Wood, founder and general manager of Ag Methane Advisors. One of the tools to reduce those emissions is anaerobic digesters, and the number of on-farm digesters in the U.S. is approaching 400. Project failures in the early 2000s made farmers afraid to use them, he said. But that’s changed, and a lot of farms now want to install them.
What Makes an Electric Truck ‘Electric’?
The headline can seem like a silly question, but consider the Hyliion Hypertruck ERX–it’s an electric powertrain truck where batteries are being charged and they power the Meritor 14Xe e-axle. But it has a range of 1,000 miles. The catch? The batteries are charged by an on-board natural gas generator and the truck is fueled up with compressed natural gas.
And this is where the sustainability conversation becomes complicated. Sustainability means more than eliminating tail pipe emissions. Thomas Healy, founder and CEO of Hyliion, answers the natural gas emissions question with: If you’re using renewable natural gas, you could actually have a net-negative carbon score operating the Hypertruck ERX. Healy talked about electric powertrain development, the role of hybrids in sustainable equipment strategies, and where he sees the Hypertruck ERX fitting into the market.
Taking the Waste Out of Wastewater
Flushing the toilet. It’s something we all do several times a day. We take showers, wash our hands, do the dishes, and the laundry. We probably don’t think much about where the water and the stuff in it goes after we’re done. It’s out of sight and out of mind.
But not to Dr. Sherri Cook, who teaches environmental engineering at the University of Colorado, Boulder. Thinking about what goes down the drain is her job and her passion. Cook sees what we’re putting in the wastewater system as valuable treasure that shouldn’t go to waste. She says the three resources recovered are nutrients, energy, and of course, water. There’s carbon in our waste that we can turn into methane or renewable natural gas for energy.
Cummins Destination Zero Strategy Comes to Life at ACT Expo
Cummins Inc. shared its Destination Zero strategy for key on-highway markets at ACT (Advanced Clean Transportation) Expo in Long Beach, California. This is the company's plan to go further, faster to reduce the greenhouse gas (GHG) and air quality impacts of its products and reach net-zero emissions by 2050 in a way that serves all stakeholders and is sustainable for Cummins' business.
Cummins is embracing the opportunity to be part of the solution to the problem of climate change by pursuing reductions of GHGs from both internal combustion engines and new technologies.
Hitachi Zosen Inova and WTE LLC Announce Colorado Renewable Natural Gas Project
Officials with WTE LLC and Hitachi Zosen Inova USA LLC announced the construction of a renewable natural gas (RNG) facility that will generate approximately 120,000 MMBTUs of this negative carbon fuel from a Colorado dairy and deliver it to the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) market.
The WTE Wolf Creek RNG Facility is expected to begin generating RNG early this fall – enough fuel to displace approximately 1.2 million gallons of diesel off the road.
Changes to Organic Waste Disposal Ordinance Approved in Palmdale, California
The Palmdale, California, City Council approved changes to the city’s organic waste disposal ordinance to meet the requirements of state law. They also heard about the potential for sending such waste to a processing facility in Lancaster that will turn it into a natural gas fuel source and compost.
The state law, Senate Bill 1383, was passed in 2016, to address the issue of methane and other pollutants released by organic waste in landfills. It set a target of reducing organic waste by 50% by 2020 and 75%, by 2025. To process the collected organic waste, the city is studying the feasibility of entering into an agreement with Hitachi Zosen INOVA, which is building a processing facility at the Lancaster Landfill.
SoCalGas Renews Program to Deliver Renewable Natural Gas to Vehicle Fueling Stations
Southern California Gas Co. (SoCalGas) has renewed a program to supply renewable natural gas (RNG) to all 32 of the company's fueling stations, along with six in the San Diego area, signing three-year contracts with suppliers U.S. Gain and Element Markets as demand continues to grow.
In April 2019, SoCalGas began replacing traditional compressed natural gas at fueling stations with RNG to help reduce greenhouse gas emissions and meet California's climate goals. Since September 2020, the RNG delivered at the 38 fueling stations is considered carbon negative by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). RNG delivered at the 38 fueling stations helped avoid approximately 275,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions over the last three years – equivalent to eliminating nearly 31 million gallons of gasoline burned, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator.
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