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Renewable natural gas in California: An assessment of the technical and economic potential

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  • Parker, Nathan
  • Williams, Robert
  • Dominguez-Faus, Rosa
  • Scheitrum, Daniel

Abstract

Renewable natural gas has the potential to diversify and decarbonize natural gas as a transportation fuel. Biomethane, a subset of renewable natural gas, is produced from a range of waste sources that are distributed across the landscape with uneven access to natural gas infrastructure. Using a spatially explicit techno-economic model of renewable natural gas supply in California, we develop supply curves for producing renewable natural gas and delivering it to California's transportation fuels market in order to estimate the economic potential. The gross potential is 90 bcf per year (94.5 PJ/yr), which is larger than the 17 bcf per year (18 PJ/yr) of natural gas consumed as transportation fuel in California in 2016. Seventy-five percent of the resource is estimated to be economic if the value of existing policy credits are fully capitalized, resulting in 6.9 million Low Carbon Fuel Standard credits. Renewable natural gas provides an economically viable option for methane emission reduction for a quarter of dairy manure in the state. The results suggest that renewable natural gas can play a significant role in meeting low carbon fuel policies in California and that expansion of demand for natural gas in transportation is needed to fully realize this potential.

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  • Parker, Nathan & Williams, Robert & Dominguez-Faus, Rosa & Scheitrum, Daniel, 2017. "Renewable natural gas in California: An assessment of the technical and economic potential," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 111(C), pages 235-245.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:enepol:v:111:y:2017:i:c:p:235-245
    DOI: 10.1016/j.enpol.2017.09.034
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    2. Keogh, Niamh & Corr, D. & Monaghan, R.F.D, 2022. "Biogenic renewable gas injection into natural gas grids: A review of technical and economic modelling studies," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 168(C).
    3. Anneliese Dyer & Amelia Christine Miller & Brianna Chandra & Juan Galindo Maza & Carley Tran & Justin Bates & Vicky Olivier & Amy R. Tuininga, 2021. "The Feasibility of Renewable Natural Gas in New Jersey," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(4), pages 1-31, February.
    4. Jun Wong & Jonathan Santoso & Marjorie Went & Daniel Sanchez, 2021. "Market Potential for CO$_2$ Removal and Sequestration from Renewable Natural Gas Production in California," Papers 2105.01644, arXiv.org.
    5. Von Wald, Gregory A. & Stanion, Austin J. & Rajagopal, Deepak & Brandt, Adam R., 2019. "Biomethane addition to California transmission pipelines: Regional simulation of the impact of regulations," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 250(C), pages 292-301.
    6. Lane, Blake & Kinnon, Michael Mac & Shaffer, Brendan & Samuelsen, Scott, 2022. "Deployment planning tool for environmentally sensitive heavy-duty vehicles and fueling infrastructure," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 171(C).
    7. Kolb, Sebastian & Plankenbühler, Thomas & Hofmann, Katharina & Bergerson, Joule & Karl, Jürgen, 2021. "Life cycle greenhouse gas emissions of renewable gas technologies: A comparative review," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 146(C).
    8. Elizaveta Gavrikova & Yegor Burda & Vladimir Gavrikov & Ruslan Sharafutdinov & Irina Volkova & Marina Rubleva & Daria Polosukhina, 2019. "Clean Energy Sources: Insights from Russia," Resources, MDPI, vol. 8(2), pages 1-25, May.
    9. Silverman, Rochelle E. & Flores, Robert J. & Brouwer, Jack, 2020. "Energy and economic assessment of distributed renewable gas and electricity generation in a small disadvantaged urban community," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 280(C).
    10. Sales Silva, Sara Talita & Barros, Regina Mambeli & Silva dos Santos, Ivan Felipe & Maria de Cassia Crispim, Adriele & Tiago Filho, Geraldo Lúcio & Silva Lora, Electo Eduardo, 2022. "Technical and economic evaluation of using biomethane from sanitary landfills for supplying vehicles in the Southeastern region of Brazil," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 196(C), pages 1142-1157.
    11. Felipe Solferini de Carvalho & Luiz Carlos Bevilaqua dos Santos Reis & Pedro Teixeira Lacava & Fernando Henrique Mayworm de Araújo & João Andrade de Carvalho Jr., 2023. "Substitution of Natural Gas by Biomethane: Operational Aspects in Industrial Equipment," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(2), pages 1-19, January.
    12. Alex Zappi & Dhan Lord Fortela & William E. Holmes, 2020. "An Assessment of Methanotrophs Producing Industrial-Grade Lipids for Biofuels and Other Commercial Chemicals," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(15), pages 1-17, July.
    13. Keogh, Niamh & Corr, D. & O'Shea, R. & Monaghan, R.F.D., 2022. "The gas grid as a vector for regional decarbonisation - a techno economic case study for biomethane injection and natural gas heavy goods vehicles," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 323(C).
    14. Scheitrum, Dan & Parker, Nathan C., 2018. "Analysis of United States Supplies of RNG and their Impact on the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard through 2030," 2018 Annual Meeting, August 5-7, Washington, D.C. 274453, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.

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