RNG Semi at MovinOn 2019.
Sebastian Blanco
Renewable energy takes many forms. Sometimes, it looks like a Class 8 semi tractor. At least, it does at the 2019 edition of the Michelin Movin’On sustainable mobility summit happening this week in Montreal, Canada.
The renewable fuel in question comes from a partnership between the nearby City of Saint-Hyacinthe, which has started producing renewable natural gas (RNG) from organic materials using biomethanation, and energy company Énergir. The renewable natural gas is simply injected into Énergir’s natural gas network, since natural gas is chemically the same no matter the source. Saint-Hyacinthe’s RNG production represents the first municipal biomethanation project in Québec.
Representatives for Énergir at Movin’On said that the RNG will be used in one of C.A.T.’s semi trucks that use compressed natural gas. C.A.T., the Canadian shipping company, has 110 CNG-powered trucks, but only one can use the RNG. C.A.T. could power all of its trucks with RNG – and it wants to, down the road – but the biomethananation project’s supply is currently limited and somewhat spoken for.
Énergir is also supplying RNG to L’Oréal Canada, which has two carbon-neutral facilities. The city can produce 13 million cubic meters of RNG each year, which means it can recycle almost 200,000 tons of organic waste. This means annual emissions reductions of 49,000 tons of greenhouse gases, the city said when it started full RNG production in early 2018.
Last month, UPS announced that it would use RNG in some of its 6,100 CNG-powered trucks. The shipping company said it will but the equivalent of 170 million gallons of biogas over the next seven years from Clean Energy Fuels. The overall use of RNG is increasing. In April, the Natural Gas Vehicles for America group and the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas announced that “32 percent of all on-road fuel used in natural gas vehicles in calendar year 2018 was renewable natural gas.” RNG is used in shipping trucks, buses and refuse and recycling collection vehicles the groups said.
