Renewable Natural Gas sounds like the biggest energy oxymoron since Clean Coal. Gas from biowaste is real, but can't supply whole countries, just niche markets. These people are lying with a kernel of truth. What can we do about it?
Of course, when natural gas for electricity goes away, we could consider sticking with some carbon-neutral biogas for cooking and heating. There is an estimate from NREL that biogas could supply 1.5% of current gas needs. Right now, there is a market for biogas in transportation, at least until EVs take over.
Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), also known as Sustainable Natural Gas (SNG) or biomethane, is a biogas which has been upgraded to a quality similar to fossil natural gas and having a methane concentration of 90% or greater.[1] A biogas is a gaseous form of methane obtained from biomass. By upgrading the quality to that of natural gas, it becomes possible to distribute the gas to customers via the existing gas grid within existing appliances. Renewable natural gas is a subset of synthetic natural gas or substitute natural gas (SNG).
The UK National Grid believes that at least 15% of all gas consumed could be made from matter such as sewage, food waste such as food thrown away by supermarkets and restaurants and organic waste created by businesses such as breweries.[2]In the United States, analysis conducted in 2011 by the Gas Technology Institute determined that renewable gas from waste biomass including agricultural waste has the potential to add up to 2.5 quadrillion Btu annually, being enough to meet the natural gas needs of 50% of American homes.
Renewable natural gas (RNG), also known as biomethane, is natural gas produced by the decomposition of organic matter under anaerobic (oxygen-free) conditions.
The National Renewable Energy Laboratory estimates that the United States could generate up to 420 billion cubic feet of renewable natural gas per year from waste sources,2 or around 1.5% of current U.S. natural gas consumption.3
Argonne National Laboratory: Renewable Natural Gas Database
Argonne researchers developed the Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) database to provide a comprehensive list of biogas projects that are upgrading gas for pipeline injection or use as vehicle fuel (whether locally or at the end of a pipeline). The database is an Excel .xls format spreadsheet and is compatible with any version of Microsoft Excel. Although a handful of Canadian projects deliver RNG into the US, all projects listed in the database are in the United States.
Manufacturing · Commercial Development · BioSNG · Upgraded biogas
Jul 25, 2019 - Now, in Europe and the U.S., the growth of this renewable form of natural gas is taking off as businesses capture large amounts of methane.
The untapped potential — especially of the billions of gallons of animal manure and millions of tons of food waste generated each year in the U.S. — is immense. According to a 2014
“Biogas Opportunities Roadmap” report produced by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Agriculture, and the Department of Energy, the U.S. could support at least 13,000 biogas facilities, fed by manure, landfill gas, and biosolids from sewage treatment plants. Those new systems could produce 654 billion cubic feet of biogas per year — enough renewable energy to power 3 million homes.
Is natural gas dirty? | Fight Dirty Energy | greenamerica.org
Natural gas is touted as a clean gas alternative, but is it? Find out more and take action with Green America. Donate Online. Take Action. Live Green. Become A Member. Highlights: A Not-For-Profit And Membership Organization, Founded In 1982.
Natural Gas: Why Is It Dirty?
- While natural gas is a cleaner burning resource than coal and liquid petroleum, it still emits a large amount of carbon into the atmosphere in the form of both CO2 and methane.
- CO2 is released during combustion, the process used to generate electricity.
- Methane is leaked in large quantities during extraction and transport of natural gas. Methane is a greenhouse gas that is about is about 87 time more potent than CO2 over a 20 year period
Renewable natural gas (RNG) is a pipeline-quality gas that is fully interchangeable with conventional natural gas and thus can be used in natural gas vehicles.
Nov 13, 2019 - Use of RNG can provide benefits in terms of fuel security, economic revenues or savings, local air quality and greenhouse gas emission reductions.
RNG projects capture and recover methane produced at a landfill or anaerobic digestion facility. Methane has a global warming potential more than 25 times greater than CO2 and a relatively short (12-year) atmospheric life, so reducing these emissions can achieve near-term beneficial impacts in mitigating global climate change. For facilities that are not already required to mitigate such emissions, an RNG project can reduce methane emissions significantly.
NW Natural Adds Renewable Natural Gas through Partnership with City of Portland
Inwhat the city refers to as Portland’s largest climate action project, greenhouse gas emissions produced by wastewater will be converted into Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) at the City’s waste water treatment plant. That RNG will then be put on our pipeline and into vehicles.
The RNG made from Portland’s plant will replace 1.34 million gallons of diesel fuel with enough natural gas to run 154 garbage trucks for an entire year.
Using RNG to replace diesel can reduce air pollution from trucks by 90 percent and greenhouse gasses by 80 percent – making it the lowest carbon fuel option for heavy-duty vehicles.
Until electric garbage trucks take over. But this project at least is not claiming more than it delivers.
The Gaslighting
I'm going to pull out some statements from relevant sources, and highlight the gaslighting.
Southern California Gas Co., which serves nearly 22 million people from the Central Valley to the U.S.-Mexico border, is determined to prevent a future without gas from coming to pass, even if it may not arrive for years or decades. The utility has begun a sweeping campaign to preserve the role of its pipelines in powering society—an outcome critics say would undermine California's efforts to fight climate change.
In city council chambers across Southern California, SoCalGas is working to convince officials that policies aimed at replacing gas with electricity would be wildly unpopular. More than 100 cities and counties have endorsed the company's push for "balanced energy solutions"—a powerful base of support that it can use as leverage in the coming years as it fights potential laws and regulations that might diminish demand for its product.
SoCalGas YouTube channel
When many people think of renewable energy, they think of solar, wind, and hydro power. Renewable Natural Gas, or RNG, is also a clean source of energy. RNG can be considered carbon-negative.
because it captures methane that would otherwise escape into the atmosphere.
California has mandated a Zero Net Energy Standard for new homes. So SoCalGas is lobbying for houses with clean rooftop solar and polluting natural gas both. They want you to have an electric air conditioning unit and a gas furnace, and don't want to talk about more efficient and cleaner heat pumps.
Energy News: Analysis: Why utilities aren't doing more with renewable natural gas
Feb 14, 2019 - Federal and state incentives steer RNG toward transportation, creating a barrier for utilities hoping to promote it.
Now some natural gas utilities are trying to green up their fuel by promoting the use of renewable natural gas, or RNG, which is methane gas produced by landfills, manure digesters, sewage treatment plants, and other biological sources
Renewable natural gas (RNG) is any pipeline compatible gaseous fuel derived from biogenic or other renewable sources that has lower lifecycle CO2e [CO2 equivalent] emissions than geological natural gas.
AGA supports the consideration of RNG potential within any legislation or regulatory proceedings exploring Zero Net Energy policies.
The Coalition For Renewable Natural Gas
The Coalition For Renewable Natural Gas is a non-profit trade association for the renewable natural gas industry (biogas, biomethane or RNG).
The RNG Coalition advocates for sustainable development, deployment and utilization of renewable natural gas so that present and future generations will have access to domestic, renewable, clean fuel and energy.
About RNG — The Coalition For Renewable Natural Gas
Renewable Natural Gas ('RNG') is an ultra-clean and ultra low-carbon natural gas alternative. As organic waste breaks down it emits methane gas, called biogas that can be processed to meet natural gas pipeline quality specifications. Biogas is a mixture of carbon dioxide and hydrocarbons, primarily methane gas, from the biological decomposition of organic materials.
Utility Dive: Renewable natural gas: The climate change solution with limited awareness of its potential
When it comes to addressing climate change, we must pursue the many diverse approaches for reducing carbon emissions. One of the most overlooked opportunities in our arsenal today is renewable natural gas (RNG).
It's simply not getting enough attention in relationship to its potential for major impact.
RNG is natural gas derived from processing raw biogas, which is produced from industry, agriculture and waste management. The most common source of biogas — which consists largely of methane — is the breakdown of organic waste at wastewater treatment plants and landfills. And methane is at least 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. By capturing waste methane and processing it to make RNG, we can avoid its negative effects while also decreasing reliance on fossil fuels.
With RNG, instead of extracting sequestered natural gas from the ground to use as a fuel source, we can repurpose what already exists, creating a "green gas" that is interchangeable with traditional pipeline-quality natural gas. And, RNG acts as a baseload resource when other renewable sources, such as wind and solar, simply cannot.
Redeem, Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) - Clean Energy Fuels
The world’s first renewable fuel made entirely from organic waste for commercial vehicles. Redeem, a biomethane fuel is cost-efficient, and available in North America and up to 70% cleaner than gasoline and diesel, making it a smart choice for natural gas vehicle fleets including heavy-duty trucks.
Getting the Facts on Renewable Natural Gas - EPA
Natural Gas. Making California's future renewable. 2nd Annual AGA-EPA Natural Gas STAR/Methane Challenge.
SoCalGas and SDG&E
We need scalable, affordable solutions. Solar, wind and hydro alone are not enough. To solve these issues we need to use ALL the tools in our toolbox–including Renewable Natural Gas.
Renewable Natural Gas (RNG Gas) Plants by Ameresco
As a critical component to a clean energy future, RNG is one of the most effective way to decarbonize existing natural gas pipelines and deliver carbon-neutral energy alternatives to municipalities, major corporations, colleges, and the transportation sector.
Getting back to what we set out to do – explain just why renewable natural gas, is in fact, renewable. To do this, let’s look at the production differences between renewable and compressed natural gas, which is precisely which makes one a renewable fuel and the other, a fossil fuel.
So, to put it simply, renewable natural gas (RNG) is not a fossil fuel. RNG never spent millions of years underground. Instead, RNG is an ultra-clean and ultra-low-carbon natural gas alternative made from the methane that is captured when organic waste from food scraps, animal manure and sewage is broken down, captured and refined.
In California, nearly all of the natural gas transportation fuel comes from renewable sources, allowing California to sustainably manage its vast volumes of waste products and mitigate short-lived climate pollutants, as well as provide new opportunities for economic and job growth.
Oct 5, 2017 — Renewable natural gas (RNG), which is derived from biogas collected at landfills and other facilities, is increasingly used to meet government targets for renewable fuel production. In 2016, about 189 million gallons of RNG were used to meet about 82% of federal targets set specifically for cellulosic biofuel.
The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is a program implemented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to promote the incorporation of biofuels in the nation’s fuel supply. Earlier this year, EPA released a proposed rule to determine 2018 renewable volume obligations, and total volumes will remain largely unchanged from 2017 levels. Volume obligations for two categories—advanced biofuel and cellulosic biofuel—were slightly reduced from 2017 levels.
In previous years, when
targets for those categories were not met, EPA has exercised its
cellulosic biofuel waiver authority to account for shortfalls. In 2016, for instance, only 189 million gallons of cellulosic fuel were produced, less than EPA’s renewable fuel volume requirement of 230 million gallons and far below the original
congressional volume target of 4.25 billion gallons for that year.
Somebody made a promise to Congress that they couldn't keep. What a surprise.
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