Competitive Edge: REN Energy International

July 2, 2020 | Jim Lane

Q: What was the reason for founding your organization – what was the open niche you saw that could be addressed with a new product or service? What was the problem, or gap, or opportunity?

Objective is to sustainably meet the legislated demand in British Columbia for renewable fuels. We will utilize the waste wood available to produce renewable natural gas (RNG) that will displace fossil natural gas in the FortisBC distribution network. Initial plant will produce 1.2 million GJ/yr of RNG.

Q: Tell us about your organization. What do you do?

We will convert wood-waste (woody biomass) to renewable natural gas through a process that is the unique combination of well-established and commercially proven technologies. Products are RNG, CO2.

Q: What stage of development are you? Choose one:

Project execution for a Commercial Plant

Q: What do your technologies, products or services do and accomplish – how does it (they) work, who is it (they) aimed for?

Woody biomass (wood waste) is gasified to produce syngas which is goes through a catalytic methanation to produce 96%+ methane.

Q: Competitively, what gives your technology, product or service set an edge in cost or performance, sustainability, or any other aspect, that makes it stand out from the crowd, In short, what makes it transformative?

The size of the project is “large enough” for the economics to work, producing 1.2 million GJ of RNG/yr
The technologies selected are commercially proven.
The project is “book-ended” in that there is a 20-year off-take agreement in place, and the feedstock is secured.