Blue Flame Bounty: Turning waste to clean energy

Part 3: Renewable Natural Gas (RNG)

Natural gas: Clean, affordable, reliable and safe

As a fuel, natural gas is overflowing with possibility . . . and versatility.

It’s an abundant, low-cost, clean-burning source of energy. It’s reliable and efficient, with a well-established delivery infrastructure. And it’s an essential player in a lower-carbon future—replacing coal for electricity generation, providing low-emissions home heating, promoting growth in renewables by addressing intermittency issues.

In this third chapter of our Blue Flame Bounty series, we look at Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), a small but growing waste-to-energy stream with plenty of practical potential.

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The basics of RNG

Renewable natural gas, also known as biomethane or biogas, is a natural gas produced out of organic waste—from farms, from forests, from landfills, from water treatment plants.

RNG is captured, cleaned and injected into pipelines. Once upgraded, it can be used interchangeably with natural gas by residential, commercial and industrial customers. Additionally, natural gas vehicles are capable of running on RNG—either at 100% or in blends—with no vehicle modification required.

According to the Canadian Gas Association, harnessing even 10% of Canada’s RNG potential would generate enough clean energy to heat a million Canadian homes for a year.

Renewable fuel, practical delivery

RNG has the potential to be a carbon-neutral fuel, while the technologies to upgrade biogas to pipeline-quality RNG are fully commercial.

Natural gas utilities are perfectly positioned to introduce RNG into our energy mix, since RNG can be used in existing natural gas pipeline infrastructure and equipment without significant new investment.

And in some places, the potential has become reality. In Abbotsford, BC, residents have been using RNG produced from agricultural waste since 2010, as part of a collaboration between FortisBC and Fraser Valley Biogas.

And in southern Ontario, Union Gas and the City of Hamilton have been working together on RNG since 2011, with RNG derived from a wastewater treatment plant used in the utility’s pipeline network.

Who supplies RNG? The growing list in British Columbia includes Salmon Arm Landfill, Seabreeze Dairy Farm and Glenmore Landfill.

Who’s interested? The Ontario provincial government recently announced a large investment in RNG.

RNG for people on the move

In recent years, interest has been steadily growing in putting RNG to work in fleet vehicles.

In greater Los Angeles, Orange County Transit operates its bus fleet on RNG produced in landfills. In Canada, the City of Toronto and Riviere-du-Loup, QC, plan on using biogas to heat buildings, power garbage trucks, and meet other transportation needs.

Over in the private sector, Waste Management operates the world’s largest landfill gas-to-transportation fuel initiative, with RNG collected at California’s Altamont landfill powering about 300 garbage collection trucks.

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