My Clean Break column this morning takes a look at a few ambitious initiatives in Toronto that will take biogas from the city’s main landfill and two anaerobic digesters, clean it up, and use it as transportation fuel, to heat city buildings, or to generate electricity. Actually, there’s a fourth major initiative — take biogas from the city’s largest wastewater treatment plant and use it for a combined heat and power plant. Together, these four projects have the potential to generate more than 40 megawatts of electricity, not to mention waste heat that can be redeployed to offset natural gas use. But all the gas won’t necessarily be used to generate power. Biogas from the two anaerobic digesters could end up being used to fuel the city’s entire fleet of 285 waste trucks, which would be converted from diesel to natural gas.

It’s good to see these initiatives finally taking shape… This is methane that would otherwise be flared, so it makes enormous sense to capture it and use it to offset our dependence on coal and conventional natural gas, or in the context of transportation, diesel fuel. Read the column for more specifics about the projects.

I have a story today on Enbridge Gas Distribution and its early investigation of biogas-injection into its natural gas pipelines. It’s already being done in several European countries and some U.S. states, and is even mandated in countries such as Germany. Enbridge, and Terasen Gas in British Columbia, are among a number of gas utilities in North America that are trying to prepare themselves for the day when “bio-methane” will become a common component of natural gas pipeline infrastructure. Will the biogas quality affect the pipeline? Can it be used in all natural gas appliances without problem? How much does it cost to scrub out impurities? What’s the best source: landfills, sewage treatment plants, biodigesters? All questions that are being asked and answered. Indeed, the Gas Technology Institute is in the middle of a $1.6 million (U.S.) study aimed as answering these questions.

Mandated access to such infrastructure would be in the public interest, and not just so the natural gas we use to heat our homes and cook our food can be a little greener. It’s important from the perspective of electricity generation as well. (more…)