US Department of Energy Grants $8.84 Million to Calgren Renewable Fuels Project for Carbon Capture and Storage

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The U.S. Department of Energy has announced several grants for Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) projects. One of the largest awards – $8.84 million – was to Calgren Renewable Fuels’ project in Tulare County, which produces both dairy biogas and ethanol. The awards will help to demonstrate the technical and economic feasibility of CCS. As US DOE describes it, the project will “establish the technical and economic foundation to establish a geologically, environmentally, and societally feasible commercial-scale, locally acceptable regional geologic storage complex for carbon dioxide (CO2) captured from Calgren Renewable Fuels’ ethanol production and dairy digester plant in Pixley, California, as well as other dairy farms and industrial facilities in the area.”

CCS is an important tool to address climate change because it can reduce emissions from bioenergy and other manufacturing and industrial processes. Bioenergy with CCS, also known as BECCS, is also one of the biggest opportunities to create carbon negative emissions that are essential to reach carbon neutrality by mid-century. According to Lawrence Livermore National Lab, a US DOE research lab based in California, BECCS can provide two-thirds of all the carbon negative emissions that California will need to reach its carbon neutrality goal by 2045. The California Air Resources Board in the 2022 Climate Change Scoping Plan has also determined that California will need BECCS to reach its climate goals. So, the Calgren Renewable Fuels demonstration project is a critical step for California to achieve carbon neutrality.

Department of Conservation Funds Forest Biomass to Advanced Biofuels Projects

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The California Department of Conservation ((DOC) has approved grants to five BAC members to conduct the environmental planning and permitting for projects to convert forest waste to carbon negative biofuels including hydrogen and bio-oil. The projects will also include either biochar production or carbon capture and storage (CCS) to ensure that the fuels are carbon negative on a lifecycle basis.

The DOC grants are just the first round of funding that the agency will provide for advanced biofuels produced from forest waste (material that is removed for wildfire mitigation or forest health). The second round of funding will provide much larger grants for the facilities themselves.

The first rounds of DOC grants include:

Arbor Energy – will convert forest waste to hydrogen with CCS

Biogas Energy – will convert forest waste to bio-oil and biochar

Mote – will convert forest waste to power and transportation fuels with CCS

Sierra Institute – will convert forest waste to hydrogen with CCS

Yosemite Clean Energy – will convert forest waste to hydrogen

For more information about the grants and DOC’s forest biomass to carbon negative biofuels program, click here.

Raven SR Announces Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) Projects

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Raven SR has entered into two Memoranda of Understanding (MOU’s) to provide Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) to Japan Airlines and All Nipon Airlines. Raven will generate the fuel from organic waste using green waste and other organic waste that is diverted from landfills, as well as landfill biogas emitted from decomposing waste.

Raven will provide 50,000 tons of Sustainable Aviation Fuel to each airline beginning in 2025 and increase to 200,000 tons annually by 2035. Providing these low carbon and carbon negative aviation fuels will help both Japan Airlines and All Nipon Airlines meet their requirements to achieve carbon neutral aviation by 2050.

To learn more about Raven and their production of Sustainable Aviation Fuel, click here.

California awards $18.7 million to CalBio and Maas Energy to Reduce Dairy Methane

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The California Department of Food and Agriculture just awarded $18.7 million dollars to BAC members California Bioenergy and Maas Energy for a total of 14 new dairy digesters in California. Together, these 14 projects will cut greenhouse gas emissions by almost 2 million metric tons over the next 10 years. Even more importantly for the climate, dairy digesters avoid methane emissions, which are many times more damaging to the climate than the carbon dioxide emitted from fossil fuel burning. Climate scientists have said that methane reductions are the most critical step we can take to address climate change.

According to the California Air Resources Board, the state’s investments in dairy digesters are also the most cost-effective of all of the state’s investments in reducing carbon emissions – on average, dairy digesters cut carbon emissions for the tiny cost of just $9 per ton, compared to an average cost of $75 per ton and some measures costing hundreds or even thousands of dollars per ton of carbon reduction.

CalBio and Maas Energy have led the development of dairy digesters in California and are leading the state in methane reductions, as well as providing carbon negative fuels and power. By providing carbon negative energy, they are also helping to meet California’s goal of carbon neutrality.

For more information about the grants and CDFA’s dairy digester program, click here.

WATCH: Mainspring Energy Converts Landfill Gas to electricity

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WATCH local news coverage of Mainspring Energy’s linear generator, which is converting landfill methane to renewable electricity in Yolo County. Using its non-combustion technology, Mainspring can reduce methane emissions and provide renewable electricity.

According to climate scientists around the world, cutting methane and other Short-Lived Climate Pollutants is the most urgent step we can take to address climate change because it begins to benefit the climate right away. Steps to reduce fossil fuel burning, on the other hand, take decades to begin to benefit the climate. Cutting methane and other SLCP emissions buys us time until fossil fuel reductions begin to benefit the climate. SLCP reductions also benefit public health since SLCPs are also powerful air pollutants.

Learn more about Mainspring Energy and its linear generator technology here.

LISTEN: NPR Story on Landfill Gas to Power in Los Angeles

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KCRW – NPR’s affiliate in Los Angeles – aired this piece on the City of Glendale’s landfill gas to electricity project, which will produce enough renewable electricity to power 4,000 homes while cutting emissions of methane, a climate super pollutant. BAC’s Executive Director, Julia Levin, is quoted extensively in the story, highlighting the urgency of methane reductions, the benefits of using landfill gas in place of fossil fuels, and the need for renewable power that is available when solar and wind power are not.

LISTEN: “Turning Trash Into Electricity”

SoCalGas Announces the Largest Green Hydrogen Energy Infrastructure System In the U.S.

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SoCalGas has just announced plans to develop the largest green hydrogen infrastructure project in the country, known as the Angeles Link. The proposed Angeles Link green hydrogen system would drive deep decarbonization of dispatchable electric generation, hard-to-electrify industries, and heavy-duty transportation in the LA Basin. It will deliver green hydrogen in an amount equivalent to almost 25% of the natural gas SoCalGas delivers today, providing enough green hydrogen to displace up to 3 million gallons of diesel per day, helping to eliminate hazardous air pollutants, and enabling up to four natural gas power plants to convert to green hydrogen. It will also reduce smog forming pollution (NOx) by 25,000 tons per year.

The Angeles Link would support the integration of more renewable electricity resources like solar and wind and would significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions from electric generation, industrial processes, heavy-duty trucks, and other hard-to-electrify sectors of the Southern California economy. The Angeles Link would also significantly decrease demand for natural gas, diesel, and other fossil fuels in the LA Basin, helping accelerate California’s and the region’s climate and clean air goals.

WATCH: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0kO2EhN5Jx8

SoCalGas Angeles (Green Hydrogen) LinkDownload

California Launches Climate Catalyst Fund for Advanced Technology Forest Biomass to Energy Projects

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The California Infrastructure and Economic Development Bank (IBank), part of the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, is now accepting project proposals for a new state program to combat climate change. Dubbed the Climate Catalyst Fund, the program will jumpstart critical climate solutions through flexible, low-cost credit and credit support. The program is open to both private and public sector applicants and will be flexible in offering a range of financial instruments to support innovative forest biomass projects.

Starting with a $47 million fund, the Climate Catalyst Fund’s initial focus will be on projects that reduce wildfire threats through forest biomass management and utilization. Starting in 2022-23, the Climate Catalyst Fund expects to expand to include climate-smart agriculture projects.

For more information, visit: The Climate Catalyst Fund website.

BAC Members West Coast Biofuels and Kern Oil Featured in Renewable Fuels Article

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Th Bakersfield Californian highlights biofuels and other renewable fuels in this article, which also features a new project by West Coast Biofuel and comments from BAC’s Executive Director about the need for increased biofuels produced from organic waste.

READ: The Bakersfield Californian, “Renewable Fuel Production Heats Up in Kern“

Glasgow Climate Conference Underscores Importance of Bioenergy to Reduce Most Damaging Climate Pollutants

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The United Nations Climate Conference in Glasgow highlighted the urgency of reducing Short-Lived Climate Pollutants like methane and black carbon as the most effective steps to reduce global warming. As the head of the UN Environment Program stated, “Cutting methane is the strongest lever we have to slow climate change over the next 25 years . . . we need to urgently reduce methane emissions as much as possible this decade.”

In California, organic waste causes 87 percent of all methane emissions, which are 74 times more damaging to the climate than the carbon dioxide emitted from fossil fuel burning. Open burning of forest and agricultural waste, wildfires, and diesel are the largest sources of black carbon emissions, which are 3,200 times more damaging to the climate than carbon dioxide on a 20-year time horizon.

On the positive side, reducing methane and black carbon benefit the climate right away. Reducing fossil fuels – while critically important in the long term – won’t begin to benefit the climate until 2050 or later. In other words, we have to do much more to reduce methane and black carbon to begin cooling the planet down right away. As Dr. V. Ramanathan, a climate scientist from UC San Diego says, reducing methane, black carbon, and other Short-Lived Climate Pollutants is “the last lever we have left to avoid catastrophic climate change.”

Bioenergy cuts methane emissions from landfill waste, wastewater treatment facilities, dairies and other livestock waste. It can also cut black carbon emissions from burning of agricultural and forest waste and from diesel. According to the California Air Resources Board, bioenergy cuts black carbon and methane emissions 98 percent compared to open burning.

For more information, see https://bendingthecurve.ucsd.edu/