Greenlane Biogas partners with CR&R on Californian AD project
Greenlane Biogas, a global supplier of integrated biogas upgrading solutions, has received a contract to provide engineering services to CR&R Waste & Recycling for its biogas-to-renewable natural gas (RNG) project in Perris, California.
Greenlance will detail a design solution to make the RNG produced at the CR&R facility conform to the Californian Rule 30 requirements for injection into pipelines.
Rule 30 is a guideline created by the Californian state utilities specifying the pipeline gas quality RNG producers must meet in order for RNG to be received and distributed.
One standard in Rule 30 that has inhibited producers from injecting their RNG into pipelines is the requirement for the RNG to have a heating value of 990 BTU/SCF.
To meet the 990 BTU/SCF criteria, a higher heating value fuel such as propane would normally need to be blended into the RNG, which reduces the ‘green’ qualities of the gas and may be cost prohibitive.
Lower heating value requirements for RNG, most commonly 960 BTU/SCF, have been adopted in other states making the California requirement the most rigorous in the US.
Mike Silva, civil engineer and project manager for CR&R, believes the company has found the right team to get their gas to meet the requirements.
‘We will be the first in California to produce and supply pipeline quality RNG from organics recycling. California has a statewide goal of 75% recycling, composting, or source reduction of solid waste by 2020 and organics recycling is a major component of this mandate,’ Silva says.
Greenlane has previously provided a Totara biogas upgrading system for the CR&R RNG facility which is being developed in four phases.
With a capacity range of 400 to 1,250 standard cubic feet (SCF) per minute, the Totara system will initially convert biogas, produced from the anaerobic digestion of annual 80,000 tonnes of municipal organic waste, into one million gallons of diesel gallon equivalent RNG to fuel CR&R’s fleet of waste collection vehicles.
Subsequent phases will see the facility expand to process over 300,000 tonnes of organic waste annually to produce RNG for both vehicle fuel and pipeline injection.
