BioCNG™ For Your Car
Biogas
used to be considered a non-reusable waste product, but over the last decade or
so, a number of benefits of the gas have come to light and biogas is now
recognized as a renewable energy source for fuel, electricity and thermal
energy.
The folks at Unison
Solutions in Dubuque, IA have created BioCNG™,
a system that converts biogas into a gaseous fuel for vehicles, much like your
typical clean natural gas (CNG). Jan Scott, President of Unison Solutions, gave a webinar – “Converting
Biogas into Vehicle Fuel” – for Sustainable City Network
about his company’s work, the process of turning biogas into usable vehicle
fuel and some interesting facts about this renewable energy source.
The customary process for turning biogas into a renewable
energy source seems simple enough. A lot needs to be removed from biogas after
it has been extracted from landfills and digesters and before it can be used
for energy. First, the biogas goes through hydrogen sulfide removal and then it
is compressed. The gas needs to be completely dry, and so the moisture removal
process is crucial. Once this is complete, the gas enters a Siloxane, Volatile
Organice Compounds (VOC) and Carbon Dioxide removal process and then the fuel
is ready for use in boilers, turbines and internal combustion (IC) engines. Unison Solutions notes that BioCNG™ is ready for use in CNG vehicle fueling
stations and CNG vehicles at this point as well.
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| Source: BioCNG™ |
Jan Scott presented a bunch of inspiring tidbits about CNG
in his webinar.
The one that shocked me the most is that the US ranks 17th in the
world for number of CNG vehicles on the roads (120,000 compared to more than
15.2 million worldwide). There are several existing reports about how much further along
Europe is than we are in the states with these vehicles, but you’ll be
interested to know that no European country is in the top five either. Nearly
19% of all CNG vehicles in the world are in Iran! Pakistan, Argentina, Brazil,
and India complete the top five. Most of these countries are developing
nations, yet they’ve managed to bring far more clean vehicles and the
infrastructure that supports them to their roads than we have.
In 2011 alone, CNG vehicles offset the use of over 350
MILLION gallons of gas. AND 40% of all waste haulers purchased in the same year
were CNG. Imagine what we could do if we took alternative fuel and vehicles a
little more seriously in this country. To top this all off, CNG costs at least
$1.50-$2.00 less per GGE (Gasoline Gallon Equivalent: 120,000 BTU/Gallon) than
gasoline does. That’s huge! (Source: Jan Scott's webinar)
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| Source: Unison Solutions |
So, not to sound like a broken record, but we have a lot of concepts
and technology out there to get cleaner vehicles on our country's roads. This stuff is far from untapped, but it can
certainly seem that way when I look at how much other countries have
accomplished in this area. America… let’s do better. Seriously.