RNG NEWS
Biofuel Groups Urge Treasury To Issue Guidance On 45Z Tax Credit
A group of 25 trade organizations, including the Advanced Biofuels Business Council, American Biogas Council, Clean Fuels Alliance America, Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas, Growth Energy, Renewable Fuels Association, and SAF Coalition, on May 15 sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen urging the agency to release guidance for the 45Z clean fuels production tax credit and any necessary updated GREET models.
The 45Z clean fuels production tax credit was created by the Inflation Reduction Act and is scheduled to take effect next year. The technology-neutral tax credit aims to support the decarbonization of the highway transportation, maritime, rail, aviation and home heating sectors.
Waga Adds North Carolina Landfill to Its Project List
The operators of the Rockingham County Landfill have selected France-based Waga Energy as the technology provider to produce marketable renewable natural gas (RNG) from landfill gas at that facility in Madison, North Carolina.
Waga Energy's designation follows a public request for proposal that culminated in a 20-year agreement with the county to install an RNG production facility at the site using the firm’s Wagabox technology.
Our Waste, Our Solution: RNG a Ready Answer for Fugitive Methane
The first few months of 2024 have offered more excitement for renewable natural gas (RNG) proponents across North America. Our journey now isn’t just about turning what we once saw as waste — from our farms, our cities, and our industries — into energy. It’s about rewriting the narrative of energy production to one that embraces our responsibility to the planet.
The RNG industry has witnessed significant breakthroughs recently. Take, for instance, Waga Energy’s launch of its first RNG project in the U.S., introducing innovative waste-to-energy technologies to a New York landfill. Then there’s the ambitious initiative between TotalEnergies and Vanguard Renewables, which aims to launch 10 new RNG projects over the next 12 months. These developments underscore a deep commitment to expanding our RNG capabilities, with contributions from both innovative upstarts and some of the largest energy companies in the world.
Sysadvance North America Team Has Secured a Purchase Order for Methagen AD Biogas Upgrading System To Be Installed in Pennsylvania
Sysadvance North American has been selected to supply a biogas upgrading solution for the University Area Joint Authority Biosolids Facility Upgrade project. The Methagen AD 900F system was vetted by Rettew Associates within the Project Specification because of its capability to treat biogas from a wastewater treatment plant anaerobic digester with guarantees around meeting pipeline purity and purification efficiency. The Methagen AD is just a part of an overall plant upgrade with a total project value of $81 million.
Quandel Construction Group will hold the contract for the general construction portion of the project.
Clean Energy and Maas Energy Works To Build RNG Dairy Production Plants
Renewable energy firm Clean Energy Fuels said it will jointly develop renewable natural gas (RNG) production plants at dairy farms across seven states in the U.S. with RNG producer Maas Energy Works.
The project will collect manure from dairies with a combined herd size of about 35,000 cows, preventing methane emissions from entering the atmosphere.
New Energy Vision Report Offers Roadmap for Cutting U.S. Methane Emissions 30% by 2030
The non-profit Energy Vision has published its report, “Meeting the Methane Challenge: How the U.S. Can Reach Its 2030 Goal.” The title refers to the Global Methane Pledge, which commits the U.S. and 154 other signatories to the goal of cutting methane emissions at least 30% by 2030 (or “30x30” for short) to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius and prevent the worst effects of “runaway” climate change. Methane is 87 times more potent as a greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide over 20 years, and it has already caused a third of modern global warming.
On May 7, EPA’s New Source Performance Standards (NSPS) for oil and gas production took effect, tightening methane regulations across millions of pieces of equipment. Energy Vision’s report assesses NSPS and a range of other current and potential measures to cut methane emissions in the U.S. oil and gas sector, such as plugging abandoned oil and gas wells and “stripper wells,” which produce very little oil and gas but collectively have high methane emissions. Of these various oil and gas measures, NSPS has the greatest potential impact, the report finds. According Energy Vision’s analysis, if fully implemented by 2029, the NSPS would cut U.S. methane emissions by 17.5%.
Anew Climate, Summit Carbon Solutions Advance Megaton CO2 Removal Project
Anew Climate announced a marketing agreement with Summit Carbon Solutions. Under the terms of the agreement, Anew will market carbon dioxide removal credits (CDRs) generated from Summit Carbon’s novel Biomass with Carbon Removal and Storage (BiCRS) project, which is expected to capture and sequester more than 160 million tonnes of biogenic carbon dioxide emissions from 50+ biorefineries across the Midwestern United States over the next decade.
BP: 3 Policies the US Needs To Boost Renewable Natural Gas
Biogas can be a powerful tool to help ensure energy security and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Captured from sources such as landfills, farms and wastewater treatment plants, it can be used for electricity generation, heat, and transportation fuel.
When cleaned of impurities such as nitrogen and carbon dioxide, it becomes renewable natural gas (RNG), which has all the same applications as traditional natural gas and can feed into the same national network of pipelines.
Dairy Manure Cuts Carbon Emissions
One of the world’s pharmaceutical giants is using dairy-cow manure and food waste to help reduce its reliance on natural gas as well as cut carbon emissions at the same time. United Kingdom drug company AstraZeneca is partnering with Vanguard Renewables, based in Massachusetts, to use biogas for heat and power by the end of 2026 in all its U.S.-based research and manufacturing facilities.
AstraZeneca began in June 2023 to purchase renewable natural gas produced by Vanguard Renewables for its Newark Campus in Delaware, where the company packages 26 medicines for distribution across the United States and makes medicine formulations for global supply. By 2026 the collaboration will enable as much as 650,000 million British thermal units or 190,500 megawatt hours per year of renewable natural gas to be used across AstraZeneca’s U.S. sites. That’s equivalent to the energy required to heat more than 17,800 homes for one year across the United States.
Exclusive: Q&A With Vanguard Renewables’ Brian Tracey
Vanguard Renewables was founded in 2014 and is the largest developer, owner and operator of anaerobic digesters in the US. We work with manure-only and co-digestion (manure, food and beverage waste) systems, which we continue to develop across the US.
The past few years have been instrumental for the company’s growth, as we were acquired by funds managed by BlackRock in 2022, and in 2023, we announced the largest US voluntary RNG offtake agreement with AstraZeneca.