RNG NEWS
Waste Not, Want Not: How Methane Biogases Can Help Us Reach Our Climate Goals
The Biden administration is cracking down on methane emissions from oil and gas operations.
Officially, they account for 28 percent of U.S. methane emissions, though a new study shows their methane leaks are even worse than we thought. But we also need deep cuts in emissions from other major methane sources, including agriculture (currently 34 percent of U.S. methane emissions and rising, as EPA’s latest greenhouse gas inventory notes) and landfills (16 percent of U.S. methane emissions, according to EPA, though new data indicates landfills emit 40 percent more methane than previously reported).
LoCI Controls Granted First-Ever Patent on Using Emissions Measurement to Optimize Landfill Gas Collection Operations
LoCI Controls announced the company has been granted the first-ever U.S. patent that covers the use of emissions measurement to optimize landfill gas collection systems.
The new patent, US 11,865,594 B2, includes technology to measure concentrations of greenhouse gases from landfills and uses these measurements to improve gas collection system operations and on-site action at landfills across the U.S. While the company's patent portfolio has continuously focused on unique and novel ways to employ real-time data to enhance the landfill gas collection process, this latest patent specifically leverages emissions concentration measurements from landfills.
RNG News Updates From the Waste Industry
For decades, waste companies have generated electricity by collecting and processing landfill gas, turning regulatory requirements into an opportunity to spin a profit. But as North America’s energy policy has shifted, using landfill gas to generate pipeline-quality renewable natural gas has become a lucrative venture.
Today, all of the major public and private waste companies operating in the U.S. and Canada have announced or already completed RNG projects at their landfills. Those facilities join a rapidly growing sector that’s also producing RNG from food waste, dairy farm manure and wastewater treatment.
BP’s Archaea Unveils Its Largest Modular RNG Plant in Kansas
US renewable natural gas (RNG) producer Archaea Energy, a BP company, has commissioned its largest-ever modular RNG plant next to a landfill in Shawnee, Kansas, BP America said on Tuesday.
The plant utilizes the company’s original Archaea Modular Design (AMD) and can convert 9,600 standard cubic feet of landfill gas per minute (scfm) into enough RNG to heat around 38,000 homes annually, according to the oil-and-gas major.
Hexagon Bullish on CNG for Long-Haul Trucks
Though some OEMs have signaled that the end of the ICE age is nigh, reports of the combustion engine’s death as the backbone of the commercial-trucking industry are greatly exaggerated. Battery-electric vehicles are seeing continued growth in various medium-duty and last-mile delivery sectors, but their lack of energy density and cost per have prevented them from gaining market share for Class 6 and larger commercial vehicles in North America.
Several suppliers are anticipating that this trend will persist over the coming decades and are making major investments in the development of alternative fuel systems for diesel combustion engines. One such supplier is Hexagon Agility. Based in the northern suburbs of Charlotte, North Carolina, Hexagon recently announced expansion plans of its Salisbury, North Carolina facility to field orders and installations of its compressed natural gas (CNG) fuel systems.
Technology Turning Food Waste into Renewable Energy: Bioenergy Devco
Food waste is an enormous environmental and economic crisis that demands urgent solutions. Each year, an astonishing 1.03 billion tons of food is wasted globally — enough to feed 1.26 billion hungry people. All that wasted food is responsible for a staggering 8% of total greenhouse gas emissions.
As the world grapples with these mounting challenges of food waste and the need for sustainable energy sources, an innovative solution is emerging — the use of anaerobic digestion (AD) to transform organic waste into renewable electricity. This cutting-edge technology offers a powerful way to address two pressing environmental issues simultaneously while also providing valuable byproducts that can benefit agriculture and local communities.
EPA’s Fuel Standards Burden Biogas, Trade Group Tells D.C. Cir.
The Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas told the D.C. Circuit at oral argument on Thursday that the Environmental Protection Agency’s latest renewable fuel standards conflict with Congress’s directive to promote renewable fuel in the transportation market.
The standards should act as “a market-forcing mechanism to incentivize the creation of renewable fuels and the environmental benefits that come with them,” Jonathan Ellis of McGuireWoods said on behalf of the coalition.
RNG Coalition: RNG Breaks Motor Fuel Usage Records In 2023
The Transport Project (TTP) and Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (RNG Coalition) today announced that 79% of all on-road fuel used in natural gas vehicles in calendar year 2023 was renewable natural gas (RNG), surpassing the previous year’s record-breaking level.
Captured above ground from organic material in agricultural, wastewater, landfill, or food waste, RNG can produce carbon-negative results when fueling on-road vehicles like short- and long-haul trucks, transit buses, and refuse and recycling collection vehicles. California Air Resources Board data confirms that the annual average carbon intensity (CI) value of California’s bio-CNG vehicle fuel portfolio in its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) program for the first three quarters of 2023 was carbon negative and below zero at -118.85 gCO2e/MJ.
TotalEnergies and Vanguard Renewables to Develop Renewable Natural Gas in the US
TotalEnergies and Vanguard Renewables have signed an agreement to create an equally owned joint venture to develop, build, and operate Farm Powered renewable natural gas (RNG) projects in the United States. The signing took place in New York on April 12, 2024 in the presence of Patrick Pouyanne, Chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies and Larry Fink, Chairman and CEO of BlackRock.
TotalEnergies and Vanguard Renewables will advance 10 RNG projects into construction over the next 12 months, with a total annual RNG capacity of 0.8 TWh (2.5 Bcf). The three initial projects in this agreement are currently under construction in Wisconsin and Virginia, each with a unit capacity of nearly 75 GWh (0.25 Bcf) of RNG per year.
Clean Energy Fuels Announces First Injection of Renewable Natural Gas At Victory Farms Dairy
Clean Energy Fuels Corp. announced its latest renewable natural gas (RNG) facility at Victory Farms Dairy in Revillo, South Dakota, has successfully completed construction and is injecting pipeline quality RNG into the interstate natural gas infrastructure. The Victory Farms two-digester facility is utilizing the manure of 6,000 jerseys cows, which could process approximately 120,000 gallons of manure each day to produce an estimated 900,000 gallons of negative carbon-intensity RNG annually.
The ultra-clean RNG produced at the facility will find its way to Clean Energy's fueling network, helping commercial fleets reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions significantly and immediately. Clean Energy currently operates over 600 stations around North America, that provide fuel and services to customers including some of the largest logistics operators like UPS and Amazon, many transit agencies including those in New York City and Los Angeles, and dozens of waste companies including WM, Republic Services and Waste Connections. Developed in partnership with Dynamic Renewables and financed through one of Clean Energy's production joint ventures, the construction costs of the RNG facility, including the build of the manure collection facility, digestors and processing plant, totaled approximately $26 million.