Energy Commission Awards Over $29 Million For Biofuel and Natural Gas Technology

The California Energy Commission has approved more than $29 million for projects that advance biofuels and demonstrate California's commitment to develop cleaner transportation fuels. The seven awards total $29,675,072 and are funded through the Commission's Alternative and Renewable Fuel and Vehicle Technology Program (AB 118), completing the first two years of the program funding cycle.

"This is a major milestone for our program because it means we have awarded all $175 million from the first two years of the AB 118 program, plus another $14 million from the 2010-11 funding cycle," said Energy Commission Vice Chair James Boyd. "We have awarded more than 82 grants, public agency agreements and program support contracts totaling $189.4 million in AB 118 funding, leveraging more than $425 million in private match funding and creating or retaining about 5,600 jobs. "

These seven awards will infuse more than $44.5 million into the California renewable industry. Recipients estimate the awards will create or retain 616 construction, engineering and management jobs over the next three years. The proposed projects focus on reducing petroleum consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, providing jobs by advancing biofuel technology and installing alternative fuel infrastructure for fleets.

• Alameda-Contra Costa Transit District ($3,000,000 - Match Share $2,663,175)
  AC Transit will construct a new hydrogen bus fueling station in Oakland. At full demand, the station will be able to provide enough to fuel up to 12 buses, sufficient for operation of a full-day, 19-hour transit route shift. The fueling station operation will avoid 700 metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, displacing 100,000 gallons of diesel gallons equivalent annually. The project is expected to create 20 temporary jobs during construction and two permanent station maintenance and operation jobs.
• Biostar Systems ($3,372,314 - Match Share $3,372,314)
  BioStar Systems is partnering with Sonoma County Water Agency and Sonoma County Transit to produce 148,000 cubic feet per day of pipeline quality biomethane from dairy waste and food processor waste to support the Sonoma County Transit natural gas fleet. This facility will reduce waste transportation costs for Sonoma County's food industry by an estimated $120,000 per year and cut greenhouse gas emissions by approximately 35,200 tons per year. The project will also generate approximately 94 jobs over the life of the project, including manufacturing and construction jobs.
• South Coast Air Quality Management District ($2,600,000 - Match share $6,000,000)
  The South Coast Air Quality Management District and their numerous partners will install and upgrade 11 compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) fueling stations throughout Southern California. Several fleets are committed to using these stations, including shuttle service companies, taxi companies, public transit agencies, school districts, waste hauling companies, city fleets, utility fleets and goods movement trucks. It is anticipated that more than 100 green jobs will be created or sustained through this project.
• USA Waste of California ($489,040 - Match Share $1,051,021)
  USA Waste will upgrade a liquefied natural gas (LNG) station in the City of Corona (Riverside County) to add storage tanks, vaporizers and dispensers that will also add compressed natural gas (CNG) to their current LNG dispensing capabilities. LNG fuel reduces greenhouse gas emission by approximately 15 percent compared to diesel.
• CR&R, Inc.* ($4,520,501 - Match Share $18,166,460)
  CR&R estimates that this project planned for the City of Perris in Riverside County will produce 120,000 million BTUs of pipeline quality biomethane from nonrecyclable municipal waste using a two-stage anaerobic digestion process. This project would displace the equivalent of 865,000 gallons of diesel, enough to power 60 to 80 heavy duty trash recycling trucks, and reduce an estimated 57,740 tons of carbon dioxide between 2013 and 2020. The project would also create 100 construction jobs and eight permanent facility/operation jobs.
• Pixley Biogas* ($4,672,798 - Match Share $4,910,925)
  Pixley Biogas intends to build an anaerobic digestion facility in the community of Pixley (Tulare County) that will process more than 36 million gallons of manure from three nearby dairies and produce biogas to be used at the adjacent Calgren Renewable Fuels ethanol biorefinery. The carbon dioxide reductions combined with the avoided manure emissions are estimated to be more than 31,000 metric tons per year - the equivalent to removing 6,300 vehicles from the road. This project should create 23 jobs during construction and an additional two full-time permanent jobs once the facility becomes operational. The project would also help retain nearly 18 jobs at its partner business, Calgren Renewables.
• High Mountain Fuels* ($11,020,419 - Match share $11,020,419).
  High Mountain Fuels intends to convert renewable landfill biomethane to liquefied natural gas for use as transportation fuel at the Simi Valley landfill facility in Ventura County. The project would demonstrate improved gas separation technology that uses new combinations of materials to provide better power efficiency and improved methane recovery than at other facilities. The project anticipates producing almost 6 million gallons of LNG each year to fuel the company's waste hauling trucks, displacing 3.4 million gallons of diesel fuel. High Mountain Fuels estimates this project will create or retain up to 300 jobs and reduce greenhouse gas emission by more than 36,000 metric tons each year.

*The last three projects will be completed in two phases: administration/design (Phase 1) and construction/operation (Phase 2). The second phase will not begin unless the Commission approves the second phase after completing a thorough environmental analysis of the project.

U.S. Energy Company FirmGreen Creates Jobs, Turning Trash into Fuel

From Newport Beach, California, the U.S. energy company FirmGreen, Inc. (FirmGreen®) is making big waves in green technology—as the first international shipment of its proprietary biogas cleaning equipment begins this week, with more shipments to follow. Bound for the Novo Gramacho Landfill near Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, this USA-made equipment—and the landfill gas cleanup project it supports—is creating hundreds of jobs for American manufacturers and Brazilian workers over the next two decades. Such equipment exports are welcome news in a U.S. economy facing an ongoing trade deficit and job shortfalls hovering at some seven million, since the start of the 2007 recession.

Interestingly, the Novo Gramacho landfill where this innovative project occurs is depicted in the internationally acclaimed documentary and 2011 Academy Awards® nominee, Waste Land. In 2010, FirmGreen negotiated an agreement with Brazil’s Gás Verde, S.A., who is the project developer and the plant’s owner-operator, to turn Waste Land’s “dirty gas,” a natural by-product of trash decomposing, into clean usable gas using FirmGreen technology. The resulting “biogas” is an environmental-friendly, highly useful fuel with the energy-equivalent of natural gas.

To fabricate the specialized gas cleaning equipment required for the project, FirmGreen contracted with an established company out of Dublin, Ohio: Guild Associates. Guild employees are also helping start-up Gás Verde’s Biogas Plant. FirmGreen’s CEO, Steve Wilburn, commented, “Our world continues to face significant economic challenges, yet this project demonstrates how bi-cultural teamwork can generate hundreds of jobs, in this case throughout six U.S. states—Indiana, Wisconsin, Ohio, California, Michigan, and Texas—as well as Brazil. Brazilian contractors are manufacturing some of the Novo Gramacho project components and will take a lead role in the plant’s installation. Together, we are building a sustainable, renewable energy process—environmentally friendly and good for the citizens of both countries.”

In fact, Petrobras, the largest company in Latin America by market capitalization and revenue, will use the biogas from the project to generate over 10% of the thermal energy needed to run its Duque de Caxias Refinery. Petrobras has an impressive record supporting clean energy technologies, and according to the U.S. Government’s EPA LMOP calculator the Novo Gramacho Biogas Plant will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1.4 million metric tons, annually. The Novo Gramacho Biogas project is slated to begin commercial operations later this year.

Wilburn asserts, “FirmGreen’s business model demonstrates Americans can, and should, take global leadership roles in renewable technologies. We have the skilled labor pool and ‘can-do’ spirit that makes America great. We can replicate this process in landfills worldwide. We can help rebuild America as an exporter of green technology to the world markets.”

An internationally recognized energy executive and devoted conservationist, Wilburn has had success with similar projects developed in the United States. Most recently, FirmGreen’s Green Energy Center in Ohio won an EPA LMOP Project of the Year Award for converting landfill gas to electricity and CNG for vehicle fuel. Remarkably, FirmGreen has achieved this success without any federal, state, or government subsidies.

Biogas To Power Austin Sewage Treatment Process

The purchase of a green-powered generator made possible with federal stimulus funds will provide all the electricity needed to run the Hornsby Bend Biosolids Management Plant in Southeast Austin.

The Austin City Council approved the $1.2 million purchase on Thursday, May 26. Funding is from a $7.5 million federal stimulus grant awarded to Austin Energy to increase the energy efficiency of municipal facilities. Austin Energy is the energy manager for the City of Austin.

The biogas generator will utilize methane from the sludge treatment process at Hornsby Bend and will be able to consistently generate 700 kilowatts (kW) of power, more than the 500 kW needed to run the treatment plant. The excess electricity produced and fed back into the electric grid will enable Austin Water, which manages the treatment plant, to receive a credit on its electric bill.

Because the generator uses the methane and not a fossil fuel, the electricity produced is considered renewable energy. It is estimated that more than 4.4 million kilowatt-hours of electricity will be generated annually, the equivalent of powering 370 average-sized Austin homes year round. The clean generation also will reduce carbon dioxide emissions by 2,867 tons or the equivalent of avoiding 5 million vehicle miles traveled in Austin.

The Council action also includes an option for Austin Water to enter into an eight-year maintenance agreement for $1.5 million if funding is available to provide regularly scheduled preventative maintenance and corrective maintenance to extend the life of the generator.

The generator is funded separately but related to green infrastructure improvements currently under way at Hornsby Bend by Austin Water to enhance the energy efficiency of the biosolids processing and increase biogas production.
Hornsby Bend receives the sewage solids reclaimed from the millions of gallons of wastewater that Austin’s wastewater plants treat every day. All of Austin’s sewage solids are pumped to Hornsby Bend where they are treated to kill pathogens and the resulting biosolids are recycled as the compost product ‘Dillo Dirt.’

Electricity From Food Scraps and Manure

The first of five farm-based biogas plants that convert manure and food scraps into electricity for hundreds of homes will be dedicated in a ribbon-cutting ceremony Tuesday, May 31^st at the Jordan Dairy Farm in Rutland, Massachusetts.

Governor Deval Patrick will join local farmers and other project partners to officially open the plant that helps solve several problems for the state's dairy industry: it will allow farms to better manage their manure, lower their energy and operating costs, and sell electricity to the grid to provide a new source of revenue. (One cow will create enough electricity to power a single home for a year.)

Along with farm manure, the facility's anaerobic digester will also recycle food scraps and residue from food manufacturers that would normally end up in landfills, and convert it to energy and organic fertilizer. Hood, Kayem, Cabot and Cains have signed contracts to supply food scraps to the plant, and buy renewable power from the farm company formed to manage the venture -- Agreen Energy.

This unique project is the culmination of a 10-year dream by local dairy farmers and Agreen who developed a first-in-the-nation business model. quasar energy group perfected the made-in-US technology, and New England Organics, a division of Casella Waste Systems, will operate the facility. Coordinated state and federal energy and permitting policies also played a major role in making the facility possible, including the creation of the first pathway to permit smaller farms to use digesters as a business.

Fremont Community Digester Commences Construction

NOVI Energy LLC announced the Fremont Community Digester (FCD) power project has secured financing and begun construction.  The complete mix anaerobic digester plant in Fremont, Michigan closed financing on May 13, 2011 and is scheduled to begin commercial operation in summer 2012.  It is one of the first large-scale anaerobic digesters using co-digestion to be built in the United States.

The $22 million project will utilize proven co-digestion technology to process approximately 100,000 tons per year of both organic waste and agricultural waste into "green" biogas (methane) which will be used to generate approximately 3 megawatts of renewable electricity. The power will be sold to Consumers Energy under a long term contract. The plant will also produce dilute liquid fertilizer and compost for purchase by regional agricultural businesses.

The Fremont Community Digester will reduce the amount of organic waste sent to landfills near its feedstock suppliers, improve the sustainability of area farms as they use FCD's organically- based fertilizer instead of traditional fossil fuel-derived fertilizers and improve the environmental quality of runoff water in the area.  The project has signed feedstock supply contracts with Fremont-based Gerber Products Company and several other major regional food processors and agricultural operations.  Supplying organic waste to the digester can be a key component of an organization's zero-landfill strategy.

NOVI Energy is FCD's developer and NE BioFuels, a NOVI subsidiary, is the managing partner and minority owner of the project.  "This project will help the West Michigan regional economy by adding investment, jobs and taxes locally, bringing together local industrial and agricultural interests and adding reliable, renewable electricity to Michigan's electric grid," said Anand Gangadharan, president and CEO of NOVI Energy.  "Fremont Community Digester can be the first of many such projects to convert industrial and agricultural wastes into electricity or other needed commodities, thereby addressing a significant environmental concern in the U.S."

Fremont Community Digester's majority owner is INDUS Energy, LLC, an investment group located in Bingham Farms, MI.  North Central Cooperative of Wabash, IN is a minority owner and will market the plant's fertilizer and compost.  Comerica Bank is providing debt financing for the project with the backing of a debt guaranty awarded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) under its 9003 Biorefinery Assistance Program.

Fremont Community Digester LLC, the project company, has hired DeMaria Building Co. as its engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractor.  FCD issued a notice to proceed to DeMaria to begin building the plant.

NOVI Energy is an entrepreneurial company that provides a broad range of services in energy consulting, energy management and energy infrastructure project development for utility, industrial, institutional and commercial clients across the United States and the world.