Bioenergy/Biogas/Landfill Gas Opportuni*es

Transcription

1 Bioenergy/Biogas/Landfill Gas Opportuni*es March 3, 2017 Clean Innovative Energy Sources to Power Our Region

2 Defini*ons Biomass any biologically-produced ma=er that can be used to generate electrical power by fueling a boiler (directly or aber gasificadon). Rural resources include forest resources and wood waste, crop residues, energy crops, manure biogas, and animal manures. Suburban resources include wood waste, wastewater treatment biogas, municipal solid waste, food waste and oils and landfill gas. Some biomass resources qualify as renewable under the Colorado Renewable Energy Standard: nontoxic plant ma=er consisdng of agricultural crops or their byproducts, urban wood waste, mill residue, slash, or brush; animal wastes and products of animal wastes; and methane produced at landfills or as a by-product of the treatment of wastewater residuals. 2

3 Analysis of Biomass Opportuni*es In 2014, TRC completed an Energy Resource Inventory for Garfield County Findings included In 2009, the NaDonal Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) esdmated the County s biomass resources were about 50,000 tons per year including Feedstock sources include forest and primary mill residues, secondary and urban wood waste (7,000 tons per year) Technically possible to produce 8-12 MW with this amount of wood Other resources Landfills (two sites), domesdc wastewater treatment (nine sites), and animal manures. (NREL 2009b) In 2012, the US Forest Service found that over 20,000 acres of forest in the County were damaged by the pine bark beetle other forest disease. 3

4 Biomass Resources 4

5 Eagle and Pitkin County Resources Significant woody biomass and urban wood waste resources Landfills Eagle County Pitkin County Solid Waste Center Wastewater treatment plants 8 in Pitkin County 8 in Eagle County 5

6 Exis*ng Colorado Projects Eagle Valley Clean Energy 11.5 MW, $60 million plant producing electricity from beetle kill wood in Gypsum, CO (Eagle County). PPA with Holy Cross Electric CooperaDve. OperaDng status unclear. There are 8 other biomass boiler projects in opradon idendfied by the Colorado Wood Energy Team at CSU (Boulder County, South Rou= School District, NREL in Golden, Gilpin County, Mountain Park Environmental Center, Colorado State University Foothills Campus, Mountain Parks Electric, Jim Hubbard Fire Management Building) Heartland Biogas Animal and food waste anaerobic digester project producing Renewable Natural Gas (enough to produce 50 MW of electricity) Western Colorado Carbon Neutral Bioenergy ConsorDum (WCCNBC) biofuels from switchgrass American Biogas Council reports there are 20 wastewater biogas projects in Colorado Glenwood Springs WWTF biogas heats digesters Persigo WWTP Biogas to RNG Grand JuncDon 6

7 Crop and Wood Waste Opportuni*es OpportuniDes Biomass to electricity technologies are readily available and proven Garfield County has significant available resources Producing thermal energy (steam) requires less capital and easier to do at smaller. Challenges Biomass projects have high operadng costs and are very sensidve to the cost of transpordng fuels The federal Investment Tax Credit (ITC) for CHP that uses biomass expired at the end of 2016 which historically helped these types of projects. 7

8 Landfill Gas (LFG) Opportuni*es The USEPA s Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) defines a candidate landfill as one that is accepdng waste or has been closed for five years or less and has at least one million tons of waste There are 12 landfills in Colorado that meet the above criteria but none in Garfield, Pitkin or Eagle County According to the Garfield County Strategic Waste Solid Management Plan, there are no requirements or plans for any acdve LFG system for the Garfield County Landfill Limited informadon is publically available about the South Canyon Landfill although there has been some consideradon of integradng solar onto the site Economics of landfill gas to power can be pre=y a=racdve if landfill gas collecdon is already required. There are many projects in the US that provide good models for structure and technology 8

9 Wastewater Treatment Opportuni*es WWTF s can employ aerobic or anaerobic treatment processes Anaerobic digesdon to reduce and stabilize solid organic waste. Through this process the solids are converted to biogas that consists mainly of methane (natural gas) and carbon dioxide. Most small plants use aerobic processes that don t produce methane gas There are 27 wastewater treatment plants in the 3 county area; only one, Glenwood Springs, recovers methane for headng digesters. Economics of recovering gas for fuel (conversion to renewable natural gas) or direct use for thermal energy or power are dependent on the local availability and price of natural gas AddiDonal value for (Renewable IdenDficaDon Numbers) RINs under the Renewable Fuels Standard. These are similar to renewable energy credits but apply to transportadon fuels. Small scale energy recovery and power generadon systems are now available at compeddve capital costs 9

10 Manure Digester Opportuni*es Manure digester and co-digesdon projects can use a variety of waste sources and technologies Most common at large dairies with wet manure handling but has been done with feedlots, pig manure and poultry waste All the systems use variadons of anaerobic digesdon technology that can produce a methane-rich biogas, nutrient rich water and solids that can also be used for ferdlizer or bedding Co-digesDon uses food waste to produce significantly more biogas Colorado ranks 3 rd in the country in milk producdon but there are no dairies in Garfield County According to the Colorado Department of Agriculture there are no feedlots in Garfield County Economics of digesters vary widely depending on scale and product desired Small systems for onsite use can use pre=y basic technology (there are thousands of these across the world) Large co-digesdon systems producing power or renewable natural gas (RNG) require professional operators 10

11 Questions? Mark Hall P: E: