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Companies Innovate in Biogas/RNG Worldwide
Here’s an overview of key biogas news.
CITIES AND MUNICIPALITIES
Toronto: Garbage to fuel garbage trucks
Toronto, Canada’s biggest city, creates vast amounts of waste. Vast tonnes of that is food and organic waste. While this traditionally has gone into the ever increasing mountains of landfill waste, a new plan is to use some of that organic waste and turn it into fuel for the very trucks that collect the waste. Organic waste will be converted into bio-gas to fuel some of the city trucks and to heat homes connected to natural gas lines. As part of a long-term plan begun years ago, many of the city’s diesel powered garbage trucks have already been replaced by ones running on natural gas.
Read more on Radio-Canada International
Plans for £150m UK bio-resources-to-fuel facility approved
Plans to build the UK’s first commercial-scale Bio-Substitute Natural Gas (BioSNG) plant have been approved by the council. Cheshire West & Chester Council’s planning committee gave the green light to the £150 million (€174.2 million) project at Peel Environmental’s Protos site in Ellesmere Port, which will generate renewable gas from up to 175,000 tonnes of bio-resources, such as unrecyclable wood and refuse-derived fuel (RDF). The plant is being developed by independent UK clean energy company Progressive Energy and will generate enough fuel to power up to 1,000 low-carbon heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) and buses every year. It is hoped the project will create around 300 jobs at the Protos site during construction, with 35 full-time permanent, high-skilled jobs.
COMPANIES & ORGANIZATIONS
Renewable natural gas project gets green light
The BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) has approved a plan by FortisBC to build a new biogas plant that will capture methane from the City of Vancouver’s landfill in Delta and add it to the regular natural gas stream to reduce its carbon intensity. The City of Vancouver will get first right of refusal to buy renewable natural gas (RNG) to try to meet its targets for getting to 100% renewable energy by 2050. Methane is already captured at the landfill, some of which is currently burned by nearby greenhouses to produce the CO2. The new FortisBC biogas plant will take the methane that’s already being captured, clean it up and inject it into FortisBC’s pipeline that supplies Vancouver with natural gas.
Read more on Business Vancouver
Renewable natural gas start-up company completes key milestone converting Alberta forest residues into pipeline-quality gas
An innovative clean energy start-up company, G4 Insights Inc., has successfully demonstrated in a field trial that forestry industry residues can be turned into renewable natural gas (RNG). Their RNG technology demonstration project has been supported by a federal-provincial-industry partnership with the common goal of clean energy distribution into homes, businesses and industry connected to the natural gas infrastructure system. The federal-provincial-industry consortium includes Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), the Natural Gas Innovation Fund (NGIF), Alberta Innovates (AI), ATCO and FPInnovations, who have collectively invested a total of $2.8 million in grants and in-kind, for the testing and demonstration of G4 Insights’ PyroCatalytic Hydrogenation (PCH) technology.
UPS Invests $450 Million in CNG Trucks, Stations
UPS Inc. announced it will spend $450 million to add 6,000 vehicles powered by compressed natural gas as well as supporting infrastructure beginning next year. It is the largest multiyear commitment UPS has made to date for alternative fuel vehicles. The additions include heavy-duty trucks, medium-duty package vans, and terminal tractors. UPS expects to have finished adding the equipment by 2022. “We have been deploying natural gas vehicles for many years. We greatly accelerated our deployment of natural gas stations and vehicles starting in 2013. We no longer consider our natural gas fleet to be in a test or experimental phase, but rather it is mainstream for UPS now,” a UPS spokesperson told Transport Topics.
Read more on Transports Topics
Prodeval launches the 1st biomethane plant in the Czech Republic
” On 24 October 2019, Energy financial group (EFG) was the first in the Czech Republic to put the technology into operation to turn biogas into biomethane in the Rapotín Energy Biowaste Recycling Centre (ECR Rapotín). And it is also the first waste biogas installation to inject it directly into the gasworks distribution system administered by GasNet. The total investment in the biomethane production project in Rapotín was CZK 45 million. ECR Rapotín has a yearly processing capacity of 30,000 tonnes of biodegradable waste from which it produces biogas in a biogas installation. ECR Rapotín and the launch of the upgrading of biogas into biomethane is the flagship project of the EFG investment group.
American Biogas Council announces 2019 Biogas Award Winners
Eight biogas projects received awards from the American Biogas Council for their outstanding performance and contribution to the U.S. biogas industry. The awards were announced at the sold-out Biogas Industry Awards and Dinner, at BioCycle REFOR19, the ABC’s annual conference. This year, five projects received 2019 Project of the Year designation in the categories: dairy, agriculture, merchant, municipal, and landfill. One project received the 2019 Longevity Award for over five years of continuous operation and one project won the 2019 Innovation of the Year award. Also, due to an increased number of projects in development, one ABC’s judges created a new category, the 2019 Up-And-Coming Biogas Project Award, of which there was one winner.
Suez inaugure à Bellegarde un moteur de valorisation du biogaz
Grâce à cette nouvelle installation, le biogaz, constitué à 45 % de méthane, est transformé en électricité. Suez vient d’inaugurer, à Bellegarde, dans le Gard, un moteur de valorisation de son site de valorisation, de traitement et de stockages déchets dangereux et non-dangereux, en présence de François Grux, directeur général de Suez Minerals France. Le groupe a investi 2 millions d’euros dans ce moteur. D’une capacité de stockage de 11 millions de m3 de déchets, ce site est l’un des plus importants de France. Au cours de leur process de dégradation, les déchets non-dangereux fermentent et produisent du biogaz.
RESEARCHES & STUDIES
Support biogas as a viable, renewable alternative to shale gas – ADBA
The UK Government needs to look at alternatives following the suspension of fracking as recommended by the Oil and Gas Authority. Biogas offers an environmentally friendly alternative that has the potential to meet nearly 20 percent of the UK’s current domestic gas needs, reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 5 percent and create 30 000 new jobs, says the Anaerobic Digestion and Bioresources Association (ADBA). Last week, the UK Government announced an indefinite suspension of fracking for shale gas in England following a report from the Oil and Gas Authority into the seismic impact of the technology. This follows ongoing suspensions in Scotland and Wales.
Read more on Bioenergy International
Could Southeast Asia’s remote islands be powered by waste?
About 10 per cent of Southeast Asia lacks access to stable electricity, and many people live on remote islands. Emerging technologies could help bring power to far-flung locations and meet the region’s growing energy and waste management needs. But challenges abound. By 2030, Southeast Asia’s population is expected to grow by more than 100 million people, requiring massive investments in energy production and waste management. Waste-to-energy systems could kill these two birds with one stone, especially in the region’s many remote islands and rural areas that currently use pollutive diesel generators or have unreliable or no access to electricity.