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About 15 years ago, a Quebec landfill was struggling with methane gas emissions and needed help. As technology evolves toward compressed natural gas, he turned to the Labrie Group for advice.
“They knew our expertise working with compressed natural gas for our refuse trucks started in 2001 and at that time, in 2010, Labrie Environmental Group were already recognized leaders in the field of waste CNG,” said Louis-Charles Lefebvre, regional director sales.
Lefebvre said Labrie helped organize the landfill owners – EBI-Environnement – to form a gas capture partnership with Gaz Metro (now Énergir), the commercial gas provider that operates a 10,000km gas supply network throughout the province.
Richard Prevost, director of sales and education for EBI, said their captive emissions go through this pipeline system and 100 percent of the production is sold in the California credit market. Since the company’s renewable gas production and fleet location are far apart in Quebec, he said, “it makes more sense to continue to bring RNG into the grid to be sold in the U.S. and buy CNG from local distributors to refill EBI trucks.”
Since Labrie and EBI formed a partnership, CNG technology has undergone many innovations that have further reduced emissions.
“In the beginning, the [diesel gallon equivalent] our tanks were extremely small. We went from a 50 DGE tank to now a 120 DGE, although most of what EBI uses is 100 DGE and that gives you 12-14 hours of driving time,” Lefebvre said.
Prevost said their trucks “are refilled at night with private stations that meet the time in our own yards and are good to go in the morning.”
The US Department of Energy’s fuel equivalence data states that diesel has the highest Btus per gallon, followed by gasoline at about 115,000 Btus. Natural gas, however, is measured in gigajoules, and 1 GJ of natural gas is equivalent to 27.7 liters of diesel, or about 7.3 gallons – making it more fuel efficient than diesel.
Prevost said that depending on the circumstances, switching to CNG from diesel can also help improve air quality and reduce costs.
“First, when you go to CNG, you reduce both particulates and NOx by 90%. You also greatly reduce or eliminate the carbon footprint of buying a fossil fuel that has been drilled, transported and then delivered by truck after being on a ship. ” he said.
Prevost, who has a career in semi-trucks, believes fleet owner-operators converting to CNG stand to gain the most over long haul. And while there is interest in electric vehicles, sources say that for these large trucks it is not yet realistic.
“EV is great, but it’s better for short trips and light payloads. If you have big loads and go far, CNG or RNG has less of an impact on trucks and operations,” Prevost said. “These can’t really go electric because of range or weight, but getting them off diesel using our current CNG technology will be better for the environment and better for their value.”
Lefebvre agreed and added that while there is a lot of interest in EVs for the waste sector, there are still payload and weather issues, particularly in cold climates in Canada and the northern US.
“There’s no magic bullet. It’s a matter of getting the industry that has a lot of old ideas to take the first step,” Prevost said.
But CNG has come a long way and clearly shows that it works well, said Gary Foster, senior vice president of corporate communications for California-based Clean Energy Fuels.
“CNG used to be a higher cost versus diesel use, but now after more than two decades of innovation, CNG trucks have come down in price. Today, 90% of new garbage trucks purchased by large commercial businesses are CNG trucks. ” he said.
Foster said the nature of that gas means it doesn’t always come from landfills or anaerobic digesters, so “you won’t know if it’s coming from a renewable source or not,” but he said the incentives are of greater interest to his company and others in turning garbage into RNG.
“In February of this year we started a huge digester in Iowa that captures methane from the manure of 6-7000 cows at this site. The solids and liquids are separated and the methane is captured and processed. It is then injected into an interstate pipeline that it runs across the country,” Foster said.
Foster said that capturing dairy methane gas “can give you a lot of credit” because of its high activity. The facility leverages California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard program to generate revenue from natural gas.
“It takes about six months of production at the site in Iowa to demonstrate the amount of methane emissions we’ve removed and then verify,” he said.
Even with these credits, the market is still complicated.
Jon Sorenson — President and CEO of JFS Energy Advisors and part of Nova Scotia’s original Heritage Gas team — called natural gas “the bridge to a renewable future,” while cautioning that “it’s all about the economics and the numbers, it’s not as easy as you might think to do renewable gas. ”
Sorenson said it works best in dense areas, where waste volumes are more abundant.
“When you have a larger, denser population, you have a lot more organic waste available to turn it into an economically viable proposition.”
Foster said continued technological advances and energy credits help scale the idea. Clean Energy now operates 600 fuel stations. He also sees this paradigm shift becoming more felt in industry and municipal budgets.
“What we’re seeing now is that municipalities that want to meet their environmental and fiscal goals can do so with CNG. Many cities are now making the clean fuel a requirement for their transportation needs and for their own or contracted collection services of vehicle waste,” Foster said.
With increased efficiency, reduced emissions, lower vehicle noise levels and better operating costs, CNG vehicles are now a major part of waste operations.
“With local, state and federal requirements to reduce emissions, it’s now part of the overall balance sheet,” Foster said.