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Northeast biogas potential like taking 3m cars off roads

Anaerobic digestion plants are one technology that could be used to turn more waste or energy crops into renewable biogas in the Northeast

Power utility National Grid believes 16% of gas demand in its service area could be met through renewable gas produced at city sewage plants and landfills.

Calling for subsidies for cleaner gas supplies to match support for cleaner electricity, the company said a $7 billion investment in its area over 20 years could bring the environmental benefits equivalent to taking three million cars off the roads.

The utility said not including requirements for power generation, 25% of the demand for natural gas among its 3.4 million customers in New York, Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Rhode Island could be met with renewable gas.

This would include 100% of the demand in New Hampshire, 35% in Rhode Island, 25% in New York and 18% of the demand in Massachusettts.

Renewable gas – biomethane – can be produced from waste organic materials in a number of ways, either directly from the break-down of waste in landfills, or through processes like anaerobic digestion at sewage plants, farms and recycling sites.

Wood residues and energy crops could also be used to produce biogas supplies.

Cleaning up the gas to the right standard, biomethane is directly equivalent with natural gas and can be directly injected into gas pipelines.

National Grid commissioned the Gas Technology Institute to draw up figures on the potential for biogas feedstocks in the four states, which estimated that 267.3 billion cubic feet of biogas could be produced each year.

Investment

Tapping up the region’s potential sources of renewable biogas would require a capital investment that “compares well with the cost of delivering other large-scale renewable projects such as solar or wind”, according to the report.

Such a program would also create up to 8.900 new jobs, the study estimated.

Donald Chahbazpour from National Grid’s Sustainable Gas Group said, “So far, direct injection of renewable gas has been limited to a small number of projects in the United States. With this white paper, we are trying to demonstrate how, along with wind and solar, it is another option to meet the clean energy needs of the future.”

National Grid, which has its US head office in Waltham, Massachusetts, said in order to switch to more renewable gas supplies, gas would need similar federal and state incentives currently offered to renewable electricity.

The company is hoping its white paper stirs debate about the possibilities of alternative sources of energy.