Thoughts from the briefing for Congressional staff on renewable natural gas

March 26, 2009 by Paula Gant · 1 Comment, leave one of your own
Filed under: energy

The briefing on renewable natural gas to Congressional staff we did earlier in the week went very well. I am very pleased we got an opportunity to continue educating others about the options we have using renewable natural gas and our existing distribution network.

Here is a powerpoint from Chris Voell of the Environmental Protection Agency titled, “Renewable Biogas: Environmental Protection and Energy Independence.” You can download the full pdf here. It’s a large file so it may take a moment.

I’ve pulled out some interesting graphics and stats for a quick view.

Here’s a slide showing the projects across the country.

Some stats on the projects include:

450 electricity generation
135 direct use (medium Btu)
25 high Btu pipeline quality gas
- AR, CA(2), GA(2), KS, LA, MI(2), NY, OH(3), PA(8), TN, TX(3), WI
- Less than 5% of total projects
GHG reductions from currently operating methane capture and use projects:
- Direct Methane – 3.5 million metric tons CH4/year
- Avoided CO2 – 9 million metric tons CO2e/year
- Total Reductions – 80+ million metric tons CO2e/year
Environmental equivalent to reducing CO2 emissions from:
- More than 200,000,000 barrels of oil consumed, or
- Nearly 16,000,000 passenger vehicles, or
- Burning more than 450,000 railcars’ worth of coal.
Energy equivalent to:
- Powering more than 915,000 homes and heating more than 700,000 home

The presentation also includes some bullets on different case studies like the one from Fresh Kills Landfill, NY pictured above.

Fresh Kills Landfill, NY

Began operation in the late 1970s
LFG-to-high Btu pipeline quality
- Selexol (chemical technology)
Largest plant of its kind until 2007

Valley and Monroeville Landfills, PA

Began operation in 2006
LFG-to-high Btu pipeline quality (2 plants)
- Membrane technology
Delivery of gas to:
- low-pressure local distribution pipeline
- high-pressure gas transmission line

Scenic View Dairy, MI

Began operation in 2007
Dairy farm digester (3,500 head)
Manure biogas-to-high Btu pipeline quality
- Pressure swing absorption technology
Small scale – 150 cfm of biogas

Hilarides Dairy, CA

Began operation in 2009
Dairy farm digester (9,000 head)
Manure biogas-to-vehicle fuel
- Pressure swing absorption technology
Biomethane is compressed for use as vehicle fuel-displacing diesel fuel.

Renee Rippchen left a great comment on my last post. As I told her, I like hearing about how people are creating energy around this issue, so let me know what you’re doing.

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Comments

One Comment on Thoughts from the briefing for Congressional staff on renewable natural gas

Amit Prakash, Ph.D. on Tue, 28th Apr 2009 10:50 am

I am a faculty with the Mechanical Eng. Dept. of Univ. of Akron. Success of Natural gas powered vehicle depends upon a light weight cost effective tank, which we are developing with a major tank manufacturer.

I would lik to know organizations, private and Government and their respective technology heads who have interest in light weight tanks used for on-board storage of natural gas.

Mr T Bonne Pickens is a strong advocate of this technology but we do not have a contact address.
Thanks
Amit Prakash