Johannes Escadaro, Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas Inc., provides an update on the renewable natural gas market during the 2016 REW Conference. Seated are Harvey Gershman, Gershman, Brickner & Bratton, left, and Ted Michaels, Energy Recovery Council.
With the election having concluded a week prior, the 2016 Renewable Energy from Waste (REW) Conference held in mid-November in Long Beach, California, had attendees discussing the implications of the results.
During the opening session titled “Waste Conversion Market Updates,” several speakers shared their views on the market for waste conversion, including biogas, at the local, and national levels.
Moderator and speaker Harvey Gershman, president, Gershman, Brickner & Bratton (GBB), Fairfax Virginia, emphasized the importance of keeping waste local to create a circular economy.
“You build a green gate so you don’t have to build a green fence,” he told attendees.
He noted that 9,000 curbside recycling programs are operating in the U.S. and 347 million tons of municipal solid waste are managed in the U.S.
Collecting waste is 40 percent of the cost of managing it and it is important for communities to try to “squeeze that inefficiency out.”
A lot of organics are left in the waste stream after recycling. To process these organics, several anaerobic digestion facilities are in the planning and construction phases.
He also mentioned that a Hartford, Maryland waste-to-energy facility closed down while a new facility in West Palm Beach, Florida began operating. “Did you hear about the problems?” he joked. “No there were none. It works,” he said of the new facility.
Ted Michaels, president of the Energy Recovery Council (ERC) and partner, AJW Inc., Arlington, Virginia, gave some insights and predictions on how the election results will impact the waste to energy sector.
“This was going to be a historic election either way,” he said. “We were either going to get the first female president or the first president with no government or military experience, and we got the latter.”
He said it was a result that the experts didn’t see coming. “What can’t happen happened,” he said. “We don’t know what is possible.”
The unpredictable results of Donald Trump winning the presidential election, he says shows that the country is deeply divided and very polarized.
He noted that the first thing the President Elect is beginning to do is put his administration in place.
The first big choice was picking RNC Chairman Reince Priebus, as White House chief of staff.
A potential pick for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) director which has since the presentation been confirmed was Myron Ebell. Michaels noted that he was a climate change skeptic and with him at the helm, the agency would scale back. The EPA’s Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) and other efforts to combat greenhouse gas emmisions “are going to be threatened,” said Michaels.
A top candidate for the Department of Energy was Harold G. Hamm, whom Michaels said is chief executive of continental resources, an oil and gas company, and a top candidate for the Department of the Interior is Forrest Lucas, president of Lucas Oil Products, which manufactures automotive lubricants, additives and greases.
In states with gubernatorial elections, 5 Democrats and 6 Republicans were elected, making a total of 33 states with Republican governors and 15 with Democratic governors. State houses were significantly Republican and while he said in the senate, people thought senate would flip, but it stayed republican.
For the first time ever, Michaels said, “Every state who elected a senator went for the same party in Presidential election.” The House of Representatives stayed roughly the same, he added with 194 Democrats to 241 Republicans.
Key committee leadership affecting waste conversion policies, include the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, and the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
He noted that one of the Democrat ranking members of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, Thomas Carper signed the signed moratorium on new waste-to-energy facilities in Delaware.
As the power gets handed over to the new administration Michaels said, “We’ll start to see a peel back of the things new administration doesn’t like from the old administration.”
He predicts among the changes will include executive orders being rescinded, halting of any midnight regulations, unwinding the Clean Power Plan.
The Republican Party platform supports the “development of all forms of energy that are marketable in a free economy without subsidies, including coal, oil, natural gas, nuclear power, and hydropower” and encourages the “cost-effective development of renewable energy sources - wind, solar, biomass, biofuel, geothermal, and tidal energy - by private capital."
They are “clearly looking for things that can work by themselves,” said Michaels, noting that new technologies “need a little help at the beginning."
He summed it up by saying “Good luck by yourself.”
If Trump were to follow the Republican platform it would be heavily fossil-fuel based, Michaels surmised.
“I had hoped the CPP would be a market driver for this sector,” he said. He also noted that the production tax credit is set to expire at end of year for anything but solar and wind. “I think the prospect seems dim that an extension will happen,” he added.
As for solid waste policy, Michaels said, “I don’t think it is in the president’s mind. Infrastructure,” he told attendees. “Remember that word.”
He says infrastructure is the one area that is in the purview of the federal government. “We are going to jump on the train and pitch ourselves as infrastructure.” Waste water treatment plants and solid waste are municipal infrastructure that needs positioned as something that needs put in place.
Following Michaels, Johannes Escadero, founder and CEO of the Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), Sacramento, California, said the nonprofit organization was founded in 2011 to create a public policy platform and to get the North American renewable natural gas industry an advocacy and education voice. He said the coalition’s advocacy efforts are focused in the U.S. and Canada, although they have members all over the world and are tracking opportunities in Mexico, to advocate for its increased deployment.
“Everything we do is informed by our advocacy philosophy,” he said, adding public policies create markets, markets are what drive demand, demand determines to a large degree the value and that value has revenue correlations and sustainability implications.
Escadero explained that renewable gas is biogas, not all biogas is renewable. RNG is a product gas derived from the decomposition of organic materials in renewable waste streams, he said. It is upgraded for use as a transportation fuel or pipeline quality fuel. It is interchangeable with natural gas, he added. The coalition has developed a close relationship with natural gas industry as it is important, he said, to tap into natural gas infrastructure.
“I think it is worth highlighting stationary feedstock for renewable natural gas waste stream supply is food waste, wastewater treatment, agricultural waste and landfill gas.
“We waste more than 66 million tons of food a year in the United States," said Escadaro. "There are more than 17,000 waste water treatment plants in the country that have any sort of gas to energy facility on-site, and the same can be said for over landfills, and over 8,000 farms.”
He noted U.S. retailers throw away 133 billion pounds of food each year which is 30-40 percent of the country’s total food consumption. A trillion pounds of food globally is wasted. “If food waste were a country it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world behind only the U.S. and China.”
Some of the policies that may be in jeopardy but have helped in the development include:
- Renewable Fuel Standard;
- Low Carbon Fuel Standards;
- Renewable Portfolio Standards;and
- Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards.
It is easy to lose sight that some of these programs although our perception might be that they are left wing democrat in origin, the renewable fuel standard was actually extended under George W. Bush and he said many red states are source where most of the ethanol coming out of the country are produced.
He described California's RPS as plan most aggressive in the country, which has driven the growth of the industry for the last 30 years, California has 6 projects, while there are 25 projects under construction in the U.S. overall and two in Canada.
He concluded by saying the RNG industry is gaining momentum and the coalition is helping to channel its voice.
From a more local perspective, Clark Ajwani, of the Los Angeles County Department of Public Works (LACDPW) provided an update on the conversion technology market there.
He started by saying that conversion technologies are working in other parts of the world, proven viable and operating.
Ajwana explained that the department advises on solid waste issues and provides regional planning and permitting in unincorporated areas throughout the county, which includes 1 million residents in 120 communities.
The county’s conversion technology program involves working with developers to develop facilities. Ajwana noted LA county has two incineration plants, which he suspect may not be operating in a couple of years. “The are not likely to be a long -term sustainable option,” he said.
The county is seeing success with its first codigestion plant which is processing 60 tons per day of food waste at a wastewater treatment plant. This could be expanded to 500 tons in the coming years. “At their materials recovery facility, they tested an organics extrusion press. That test has shown favorable results,” Ajwana reported.
A large anaerobic digestion facility being built in neighboring Orange County by CR&R; Inc. is “a big driver and facility we can point to. We can go to that facility when it is up and running very shortly,” Ajwana said.
One of the issues with conversion technologies is the lack of understanding, according to Ajwana. He said they are often confused with incineration. He said the LACDPW developed a white paper to discuss the environmental benefits of conversion technologies, which showed facilities operating overseas integrated with a materials recover facility. The white paper explaned the separation of a wet fraction dry fraction called mechanical/biological treatment (MBT). The wet fraction goes to AD and recyclables are recovered from the dry fraction with the residuals going to thermal conversion.
“This scenario shows very favorable greenhouse gas emissions avoidance,” he says.
Barriers to the development of conversion technologies (CTs) include cheap landfill fees. Ajwani said looking at the environmental impact and building that into the cost of landfilling would help. He also noted cap and trade and that higher emission standards exist for CTs than for landfills. A lack of funding also contributes to the problem.
Gas collection credits are available for landfills but not CTs, he continued. They aren’t part of the solid waste hierarchy and they face uncertain legislative and regulatory framework, Ajwani added.
He said it will help if the state of California fixed some of the permitting pathways and incorrect definitions.
The 2016 Renewable Energy from Waste Conference was Nov. 14-16 at the Westin Long Beach in Long Beach, California.
