RNG: Zero Scope 1 Emissions and Negative Carbon Intensity -- RNG Recycles Carbon and Reduces Our Dependence on Fossil Natural Gas

by Shashi Menon (EcoEngineers) However, recycling the carbon already in the atmosphere prevents the extraction and combustion of fossilized carbon sources.

Think of an aquifer below the ground that holds water; let’s say you want to limit your dependence on it. You would try to use rainwater and other surface water as much as possible to meet your daily needs. If you can switch 100% of your water use to surface water, you will not draw any new water from the aquifer.

Recycling carbon is the same concept. By using carbon that is already on the earth’s surface and the atmosphere, we are not extracting new sources of carbon from fossil fuels that have been buried in the ground for millions of years. Renewable Natural Gas or RNG is a fuel source that recycles carbon in the atmosphere and reduces our dependence on fossil natural gas.

To illustrate the point, if all the natural gas consumed in the U.S. was RNG, there would be no new carbon emission from fossil gas sources. The resulting Scope 1 emissions for entities burning RNG would be zero.

While conventional natural gas is extracted from fossilized sources deep in the earth, RNG recycles carbon that is already in the atmosphere.

Because RNG performs like natural gas without being a fossil fuel, RNG provides a practical, cost-efficient, and replicable source of clean energy for our homes and businesses, while also reducing the environmental impact of the waste.

All communities continuously produce different forms of waste – whether through landfills, wastewater treatment plants, or animal feedlots – and as these sources of waste naturally decompose, they emit methane. RNG is produced from the decomposition of organic waste, captures this methane, and transforms it into a clean source of fuel without increasing carbon emissions from burning fossil fuels.

RNG can fuel heating, transportation, and electricity production and even help to create hydrogen. It needs no new equipment or infrastructure to capture and transport it, since it is completely compatible with existing natural gas infrastructure.

RNG can be used to replace fossil-based natural gas for all applications to heat a home, without requiring any upgrades or adjustments to power existing appliances, including stoves, furnaces, or boilers.

RNG’s ultralow CI scores are possible because the process of producing the gas from manure requires the diversion of manure from open lagoons that would otherwise vent methane to the atmosphere. Methane, even though it is short-lived in the atmosphere compared to CO2, is much more effective at holding heat. Preventing one molecule of methane reaching the atmosphere is equivalent to 32 molecules of CO2. Accounting for the prevented methane emissions allows the fuel to achieve a negative CI value.

In 2020, approximately 3.5 million metric tons of CO2e emissions was avoided as a result of RNG use as vehicle fuel in the U.S. – the equivalent of taking 756,000 cars off the road or negating the electricity consumption of nearly 600,000 homes (according to the USEPA’s Greenhouse Gas Equivalencies Calculator).

On the farm, RNG gives farmers a way to responsibly and profitably handle waste products or crop and livestock residues that have traditionally been problematic.

Similarly, municipalities can convert municipal solid waste and wastewater sludge into RNG and access new sources of income, which can reduce the tax burden of their citizens. READ MORE