Pine Creek RNG conducts ongoing research and development on the optimization of landfill gas to pipeline injection. We use the best-of-class gas collection and upgrading equipment for all our projects, and employ controls, monitoring and automation for operations, optimization, and plant control. We believe that technology innovation, combined with the growing demand to reduce emissions, is driving the next generation of biogas upgrading equipment, with significantly lower levelized costs ($/MMBtu) of production. We have selected landfill gas to pipeline injection projects because of project long-term stability and the declining costs of gas production.
Landfills generate gas (called “biogas”) as the decomposing waste undergoes biological, chemical and physical transformations. The primary components of landfill biogas are methane (CH4), carbon dioxide (CO2), nitrogen (N2), and other trace gas components. Regulations requiring landfill gas control in the United States began in 1976 under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA). This was the dawn of a new solid waste era, when regulation and technology changes turned local “dumps” into what we now know as modern landfills. Over time, landfill gas collection and control system designs were improved, leading to installation and operation of landfill gas-to-energy electrical generation projects. Today, with newer technology and increasing demand for non-fossil fuels, biogas upgrading to Renewable Natural Gas (RNG) is supplanting electrical generation projects as the preferred use for landfill biogas. Ongoing innovation in the areas of gas collection, enhanced gas generation, gas upgrading, and gas utilization, coupled with energy delivery into established pipelines, have resulted in RNG upgrading facilities being recognized as an important addition to the renewable energy production sector within the national energy grid.
After the upgrade treatment process is complete, Pipeline-Quality bio-methane is injected into the gas pipeline and blended with fossil gas. This renewable biogas would have otherwise been flared for EPA compliance.
