GFL-Solid Waste Engineering Services SOQ

RENEWABLE NATURAL GAS For years, RNG has primarily been used to maximize financial and energy performance in the agribusiness and waste management sectors. RNG is compositionally identical to fossil natural gas, with the only difference being the isotope makeup of the carbon. It can come from a variety of organic sources (like biomass digesters, landfills, and wastewater treatment plants) or it can be chemically produced. In the US, there are more than 200 RNG production facilities with most being associated with biomass digesters or wastewater treatment plants. Currently, in the U.S., 385 million cubic feet of RNG is produced per day, which is the equivalent of approximately 69 barrels of oil. Not only does RNG have an identical composition to fossil natural gas, it’s also a by-product of the waste we are already producing at landfills. Rather than letting the methane escape into the atmosphere, companies can capture it, transform it into RNG, and distribute it using the same natural gas pipeline infrastructure already in place. An advantage of RNG production is that it gives value to what would otherwise be waste material, whether that be manure, food waste, or sewage. It also reduces methane emissions from landfills and wastewater treatment plants. Renewable Energy Reality: Tapping into Biomass Key global industries currently face a common challenge of relocating labor intensive manufacturing to ensure competitiveness while still adequately addressing environmental concerns related to greenhouse gas emissions. Biomass is the biodegradable fraction of products, waste and residues from biological origin from agriculture, forestry and related industries that can be burned to produce energy. Some can be converted into another energy product like biofuel while others can be anaerobically digested to produce methane. Considered to be carbon neutral, biomass is an ideal source of renewable energy while still an underutilized or rejected product. Often the missing piece is sound economic trade-off studies to evaluate biomass conversion technology including the implication of carbon trading on the industry. Such studies help keep the industry accountable while simultaneously optimizing efficiency and making production even more competitive. Tapping into renewable energy is the new reality in which we all live and work.

RNG offers ways to turn waste products into fuel and we are already doing it. New methods, making a substantial impact in our energy mix, are utilized by WSP to scale up RNG production.

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