Renewable natural gas used to meet 82 percent of federal targets for renewable fuels, EIA report says
Renewable natural gas (RNG) is increasingly used to meet government targets for renewable fuel production, with approximately 189 million gallons of RNG being used to meet approximately 82 percent of federal targets set for cellulosic biofuel, according to recently released data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Implemented by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the renewable fuel standard (RFS) is a program that aims to promote the use of biofuels in the nation’s fuel supply. In early 2017, the EPA released a proposed rule in order to determine the 2018 renewable fuel volume obligations, which largely remain unchanged from the current year’s levels. However, volume obligations for advanced biofuel and cellulosic biofuel were slightly reduced.
In past years when obligations were not met, the EPA has used its waiver authority for cellulosic biofuel to account for shortfalls. The report cited an instance in 2016 when only 189 million gallons of cellulosic fuel were produced, far off of the EPA’s volume requirement of 230 million gallons for that year as well as the original congressional volume target of 4.25 billion gallons for that year.
To address shortages in the requirement, RNG has increasingly been used to meet the required thresholds. According to a 2014 EPA rule, the agency’s interpretation of cellulosic biofuel was expanded to include biogas consumed as compressed natural gas (CNG) and digesters and separated municipal solid waste digesters. Each biogas was then processed to be indistinguishable from pipeline-quality natural gas.
The rule resulted in an increased production of liquefied RNG and compressed RNG from 33 million gallons of ethanol equivalent in 2014 to 189 million gallons in 2016. According to EPA projections, approximately 238 million gallons of cellulosic biofuel will be produced in 2018, 221 million of which are expected to be CNG or LNG derived from renewable natural gas.
