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Biogas & RNG at the heart of the news!
Here’s an overview of key biogas news.
CITIES AND MUNICIPALITIES
Oneida County starts turning food into energy
New York state will soon require large generators of food waste donate what they can to those in need and compost the rest. The mandate won’t go into effect until 2022, but work is already underway in the Mohawk Valley to meet this new recycling challenge. Bill Rabbia, executive director of the Oneida-Herkimer Solid Waste Authority (OHSWA), says they do their best to make one last use of the trash that ends up in landfills by capturing the methane gas it emits to generate electricity. However, Rabbia says the system is imperfect.
Seeking Sustainable Solutions for Nashville’s Organic Wastes
An interdisciplinary team of researchers from the University of Tennessee has been awarded a $40,000 grant to collaborate with the nonprofit Resource Capture to develop a more sustainable way to manage the booming Nashville metropolitan area’s organic wastes and, in the process, provide a valuable soil amendment for the region’s farmers. The Nashville metropolitan area has experienced tremendous growth in recent years and is struggling to manage its organic waste. Currently, organics (food scraps, woody waste, yard waste and some industrial waste) comprise around 32% of its residential waste and 19% of its commercial waste. The vast majority of this waste, mostly food, is sent to a landfill in Rutherford County that is scheduled to close in the next five to 10 years.
Renewable Natural Gas Now Available in New York City as Clean Energy Opens Fueling Station in The South Bronx
Clean Energy Fuels Corp. (Nasdaq: CLNE), the leading provider of natural gas fuel for transportation in North America, welcomed city officials, community leaders, and environmental advocates to the opening of its newest natural gas fueling station in Hunts Point—the first station in New York City to exclusively offer renewable natural gas (RNG) for medium- and heavy-duty vehicle fleets. “A few blocks from here is Hunts Point Market, the largest food distribution center of its kind in the world, resulting in approximately 15,000 truck trips per day,” said Chad Lindholm, vice president of sales for Clean Energy. “This long-envisioned station will serve fleets operating in Hunts Point with a lower-cost alternative to diesel fuel that can lead to substantial reductions in truck-related pollution and greenhouse gas emissions.”
COMPANIES & ORGANIZATIONS
HoSt Constructing Biogas-to-Biomethane Plant in France
HoSt is constructing its first MICROFERM+ agricultural biogas-to-biomethane plant at a cattle farm in Guichen near Rennes, France. MICROFERM+ plants are specially designed for on-farm anaerobic digestion of liquid and solid manure and agricultural feedstock. HoSt acts as one-stop supplier for this turnkey project which is scheduled for completion in November of this year. To give farmers the ultimate possibility to use their agricultural ‘waste’ as valuable feedstock to produce biomethane, HoSt developed the MICROFERM+. It is a turnkey solution for an agricultural biogas plant combined with a biogas upgrading system, using membrane separation technology, and plant control system in a single compact and modular housing.
Read more on Renewable Energy Magazine
Gasrec guide tackles the tough questions to consider when switching to natural gas
Natural gas supplier Gasrec has published a free advice booklet, designed to help commercial vehicle fleets when appointing a fuel provider to support their transition from diesel to more environmentally-friendly and sustainable fuels. Titled 10 Tough Questions to Ask Your Commercial Vehicle Gas Provider, the handy guide is available to download from the Gasrec website and covers the important issues to consider when appointing a new fuel supplier. Natural gas is becoming an increasingly crucial alternative for the UK transport sector, with stringent government emission targets pushing to reduce HGV greenhouse gas emissions by 15 per cent by 2025.
RESEARCHES & STUDIES
Will renewable natural gas credits help jumpstart new market for biogas?
Critics say tracking renewable natural gas production and sales will be difficult and present opportunities for fraud. North America’s first pilot project allowing companies to claim environmental credits for renewable natural gas may be a boon for utilities providing home heating. The Minneapolis-based Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System (M-RETS) will begin in July creating “renewable energy certificates” (RECs) produced from the manufacture of renewable natural gas — methane captured from landfills, sewage plants, farms, and other sources. In the past, the credits have been mainly awarded for solar, wind and hydropower in the electric sector.
EU transportation sector still overly dependant on fossil fuels
The European Union (EU) transportation sector is still overwhelmingly reliant on fossil fuels. In 2017, 93 percent of final energy consumption in transportation – road, rail, sea or air – was fossil fuel based accounting for a quarter of the EU’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions according to a new report published by Bioenergy Europe with input from the European Renewable Ethanol Association (ePURE). Organizations such as the International Energy Agency (IEA) and International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) have pointed out that the European Union (EU) will have to greatly increase its usage of bioenergy to have any real success at decarbonizing the European economy and shifting to a low greenhouse gas (GHG) emission mobility infrastructure.
Read more on Bioenergy International
Energy plan to create 1,000 low-carbon jobs
The Marches Local Enterprise Partnership says its new 10-year energy plan will also see half of the region’s electricity produced by renewable sources by 2030, a national pilot scheme developed for overcoming disruption to the National Grid and fuel poverty cut to below 10 per cent. The LEP – which covers Shropshire, Telford & Wrekin and Herefordshire – will officially launch the energy strategy at a major conference in Ludlow called ‘Planning for a Climate Emergency: Delivering a net zero carbon economy in the West Midlands’ on July 25. The creation of 1,000 new jobs in the low carbon and renewable energy sector across the region by 2030