The California Energy Commission approved about $39 million in expenditures June 29--including an $11 million grant to a company developing technology capable of converting landfill biomethane to liquefied natural gas for transportation fuel. The grant recipient, High Mountain Fuels, says the project will produce nearly 6 million gallons of renewable bio-liquefied natural gas/year, plus displace 3.43 million gallons of diesel fuel/year. “They plan to demonstrate an improved gas separation technology,” Joanne Vinton of the commission’s emerging fuels and technology office said. “Their goal is better power efficiency and higher methane recovery.” The company states the project would reduce transportation greenhouse gas emissions by over 36,000 metric tons per year and provide near-zero carbon bio-liquefied natural gas renewable fuel for up to 500 heavy-duty liquefied natural gas trucks. The second largest expenditure, $4.6 million, was granted to Pixley Biogas, to build a facility that would process over 36 million gallons of manure from three nearby dairies and supply the resultant biogas to the adjacent Calgren Renewable Fuels ethanol biorefinery. Calgren, which would use the biogas in its boiler, says that access to a local supply of biogas, along with improved operational efficiencies, would reduce the refinery’s natural gas consumption by 402 MMBtu per day, the equivalent of 13 percent. Also this week, the commission gave a $4.5 million grant to Orange County-based waste and recycling firm CR&R to produce biomethane from non-recyclable inert waste. CR&R estimates that the project will use 50,000 tons of waste per year to produce 120,000 MMBtu of biomethane annually. The company says this would displace the equivalent of 865,000 gallons of diesel--enough to power 60 to 80 heavy duty trash recycling trucks--while reducing about 57,740 tons of carbon dioxide between 2013 and 2020. Additionally during the meeting, the commission granted $2.6 million to the South Coast Air Quality Management District to install and upgrade 11 liquefied natural gas and compressed natural gas stations in the South Coast Air Basin.
