Renewable Sources of Natural Gas report released

In Washington,  American Gas Foundation released this study conducted by ICF, to c provide an estimate of the supply potential of domestic RNG resources, calculates associated costs of RNG production and estimates the corresponding GHG emission reduction potential. ICF presents three scenarios for RNG resource potential, all based upon a 2040 timeline. The study finds that RNG can play a substantial role in lowering emissions, with costs that are lower or competitive with other emission reduction pathways.

The primary objective of this report is to characterize the resource and economic potential for RNG as a greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction strategy. Further, this report seeks to improve policy makers’ understanding of the extent to which delivering RNG to all sectors of the economy can contribute to broader GHG emission reduction initiatives.

The following sub-sections introduce the RNG production technologies and corresponding feedstocks. ICF assessed the production potential for renewable gas into three categories: 1) RNG from renewable feedstocks using anaerobic digestion (AD) and thermal gasification (TG), 2) RNG derived from municipal solid waste (MSW), and 3) RNG produced via combination power-to-gas (P2G) and methanation. For each resource and production technology pairing, ICF estimated the production cost and corresponding range of GHG emissions.  Renewable natural gas (RNG) is derived from biomass or other renewable resources, and is a pipeline-quality gas that is fully interchangeable with conventional natural gas.