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    BM 2011v3 Offline

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    Ashok Subramaniyan
    California has strict environmental regulations and requires 33% of its energy to come from renewable sources by 2020. Southern California Gas has turned its focus to biogas, a renewable resource produced from organic waste, as a way to meet these standards. The company is testing a new pressure swing adsorption technology at a wastewater treatment plant to extract pure methane from biogas for use in natural gas pipelines. This process helps reduce reliance on fossil fuels, balances the carbon cycle, and has the potential to completely replace fossil fuels over time.

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    BM 2011v3 Offline

    Uploaded by

    Ashok Subramaniyan
    26 views1 page
    California has strict environmental regulations and requires 33% of its energy to come from renewable sources by 2020. Southern California Gas has turned its focus to biogas, a renewable resource produced from organic waste, as a way to meet these standards. The company is testing a new pressure swing adsorption technology at a wastewater treatment plant to extract pure methane from biogas for use in natural gas pipelines. This process helps reduce reliance on fossil fuels, balances the carbon cycle, and has the potential to completely replace fossil fuels over time.

    Original Description:

    Extracting the Power of Biogas

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    California has strict environmental regulations and requires 33% of its energy to come from renewable sources by 2020. Southern California Gas has turned its focus to biogas, a renewable resource produced from organic waste, as a way to meet these standards. The company is testing a new pressure swing adsorption technology at a wastewater treatment plant to extract pure methane from biogas for use in natural gas pipelines. This process helps reduce reliance on fossil fuels, balances the carbon cycle, and has the potential to completely replace fossil fuels over time.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    26 views1 page

    BM 2011v3 Offline

    Uploaded by

    Ashok Subramaniyan
    California has strict environmental regulations and requires 33% of its energy to come from renewable sources by 2020. Southern California Gas has turned its focus to biogas, a renewable resource produced from organic waste, as a way to meet these standards. The company is testing a new pressure swing adsorption technology at a wastewater treatment plant to extract pure methane from biogas for use in natural gas pipelines. This process helps reduce reliance on fossil fuels, balances the carbon cycle, and has the potential to completely replace fossil fuels over time.

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    of 1

    [OFFLINE]

    Extracting the Power of

    Bi gas

    New Technology Helps Tap Source of


    Renewable Natural Gas

    The state of California arguably has the


    strictest environmental regulations of any
    state in the country. The state as a whole
    already embraces renewable energy sources,
    such as wind and solar, and by 2020, 33
    percent of the states energy sources must
    be renewable.
    Over the past 10-15 years, as the state
    of California has made environmental
    regulations increasingly strict, almost
    all power plants run on a combination of
    natural gas, wind, solar geothermal and other
    sources of renewable energy, says Patrick
    Hirl, project manager for Burns & McDonnell.
    There are only two coal-fired plants left in
    the state.

    A New Look at Biogas


    As a result of the emphasis placed on
    renewable energy sources, Southern
    California Gas Co., the largest distributor of
    natural gas in the country, has turned its focus
    to biogas. Biogas is a renewable resource and
    is the product of the decomposition of organic
    matter in wastewater treatment plants, cattle
    manure, food waste and landfills.
    In some cases, biogas is conditioned for
    combustion in a reciprocating engine or
    microturbine for electrical power generation.
    But in many wastewater treatment plants
    and landfills, biogas is burned off, or flared,
    because it is does not meet the requirements
    for use as a pipeline gas.
    Flaring the biogas from organic matter is
    not a problem in terms of damage to the
    environment because the carbon being
    released is already part of the current carbon
    cycle, Hirl says, but its a waste of energy.
    Realizing the potential biogas holds as a
    renewable energy source, Southern California
    Gas is investigating a new technology to
    extract pipeline-quality natural gas
    2011 No. 3

    Pressure swing
    adsorption technology
    uses the differences
    in physical properties
    of methane and
    carbon dioxide to
    separate these two
    main components
    of biogas, creating a
    renewable source of
    methane, otherwise
    known as natural gas.

    methane from biogas emitted from a


    wastewater treatment plant in Escondido,
    Calif. The process, pressure-swing adsorption
    (PSA), works to separate gas species
    specifically carbon dioxide from methane.
    As owners engineer for Southern California
    Gas, Burns & McDonnell helped identify
    potential technology providers, and Southern
    California Gas ultimately chose Canadabased Xebec because it could provide the
    purest form of methane through the PSA
    process and guarantees meeting and even
    exceeding Californias standards for natural
    gas in pipelines.
    Southern California Gas is taking the first
    steps in the industry to find alternatives to
    natural gas that are renewable, Hirl says.

    environment thousands of years ago, Hirl


    says. But natural gas extracted from biogas
    contains carbon from within the last couple of
    years and is still considered part of the current
    carbon cycle. So it would reduce the amount
    of old carbon being released and reduce
    greenhouse gases.

    Although were a
    ways away from it,
    there is the potential
    to completely
    eliminate the use
    of fossil fuels.

    Environmental Win
    These efforts to reduce reliance on fossil fuels
    as the main source of energy for power plants
    not only ensure a supply of natural gas, but
    also put the carbon cycle a step closer to
    being balanced.
    Right now, the main source of natural gas
    is fossil fuels, and the carbon released from
    burning that natural gas was pulled from the

    It also helps pave the way to completely


    eliminating fossil fuels.
    That is a vision people have, Hirl says.
    Although were a ways away from it, there is
    the potential to completely eliminate the use
    of fossil fuels.
    For more information, contact Patrick Hirl, 952-656-3634.
    BURNS & McD ONNELL

    18

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