The proposed Port Ambrose deepwater LNG terminal near New York City has been denounced by environmentalists as a dirty and dangerous export terminal in disguise. The reality is that LNG is the safest and cleanest fuel available and natural gas is critical in efforts to eliminate air pollution and save lives in New York City….
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The coal power industry is under pressure from numerous fronts. Against a background of soft demand, competitive natural gas prices and growing capacity from renewables, the coal power industry is facing a series of major environmental regulations that are forcing power plant owners to either invest in major upgrades or shut down underperforming plants. New…
Continue reading →This article by Lynn Saunders from Australia explains the Earth’s carbon cycle and how soil reclamation can be used to sequester CO2. Most of the posts on my site are my original work, but I am making an exception here because this article is so comprehensive and I have not written much on this important…
Continue reading →What is remarkable from this list is how little policy support there is for RNG compared to other renewable energy sources and biofuels. The most significant Federal support comes from the Renewable Fuels Standard which is intended to support ethanol, including both corn ethanol and cellulosic ethanol. Production of cellulosic ethanol has been extremely disappointing,…
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Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is often regarded as extremely dangerous and toxic with container ships called floating bombs. But is this perception accurate? The historical reality is that LNG has the best safety record of all common fuel types and is completely non-toxic. Of course natural gas vapors are flammable and present safety hazards that…
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Renewable natural gas (RNG) is methane produced from biomass that is cleaned to pipeline quality standards and blended with fossil natural gas. RNG, also known as biomethane, is carbon-neutral and chemically identical to fossil natural gas allowing it to be blended without restriction. Renewable natural gas is produced from a variety of (mostly waste) resources…
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The EPA has long promoted cellulosic ethanol as the future of biofuels, but technical challenges have kept production far below targets. A recent rule change allows RNG, renewable natural gas, to qualify as cellulosic biofuel even though RNG is not cellulosic, but this helps EPA appear to be meeting their goals. RNG growth has been…
Continue reading →The use of natural gas is growing throughout the world as new drilling techniques have opened up vast shale resources and low cost gas is flooding the market. The environmental advantages of natural gas over other fossil fuels have put it in a favored position as emissions regulations continue to tighten around the world. But…
Continue reading →The northeast USA offers an interesting story of natural gas pricing as pipeline constraints limit the flow of gas from the bountiful production regions in the Marcellus and Utica shales to the enormous demand centers in Boston and New York City. Key chokepoints for the gas distribution are around New York City/Long Island and in…
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This equation describes the idea of reverse combustion with renewable methane, carbon capture and oxy-combustion. This is also known as chemical looping and is a form of using renewable natural gas as energy storage. Combustion works by combining fuel (CH4) with oxygen to create heat (energy) plus carbon dioxide (CO2) and water (H2O). Typically the CO2…
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