Landfills are ubiquitous across the United States, a vital piece of metropolitan infrastructure and a growing environmental challenge for waste management companies across the nation. Constituting 14% of total U.S. methane emissions in 2022, municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills are the third-largest methane emitter, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.Recognizing the vast potential to extract value from landfills while capturing methane, Vision RNG partners with operators to design, build, own and operate landfill gas (LFG)-to-renewable natural gas (RNG) infrastructure on-site. The company leverages its expertise in waste management, natural gas infrastructure and project development to keep timelines on track.&nbsp;Bill Johnson, CEO of Vision RNG, has over three decades of experience in the construction industry and oil and gas space. Throughout his career, he has gained substantial experience in developing and executing projects. He explains that a key differentiator for Vision RNG is the company’s experience, efficiency and speed of execution. When the company started in 2021, leadership made the decision to recruit a team with expertise in landfill natural gas and traditional natural gas, as well as the experience in engineering, construction and project management needed for developing an industrial gas site. Acquiring all this talent up front has helped the company get projects built and running quickly, with two projects already producing RNG—one in Missouri and one in Kentucky—three and a half years after the company started.&nbsp;Vision RNG is not slowing down and has a full pipeline of projects in different stages of development: two large projects are currently under construction in Ohio; three projects are in the engineering phase, transitioning to the construction phase in the next few months; two more projects are also in development; three projects are signed for, but work has not started as of print date; and finally, two sites have had letters of intent issued for projects.&nbsp;“It’s quite a good pipeline, considering it takes at least two years to build the projects, and we only started a little over three years ago,” Johnson says. “We feel really good about where our where our progress has been with the development.”Problem to Product&nbsp; The two major problems that landfill operators face are environmental concerns related to emissions and odor problems. “The only reason landfills have odor is because gas is coming out,” Johnson says. “And it is sort of a miserable gas because of all the rotten stuff that’s [in there]. That can be a public relations problem—no one wants to live near a landfill and smell a terrible smell.”Landfills with a design capacity 2.5 million metric tons and 2.5 million cubic meters of waste must install and operate a gas collection system, according to the EPA’s 2016 updates to the New Source Performance Standards.&nbsp;Combusting the gas is a traditional means of controlling the gas. “Think of it as poking a bunch of holes in the landfill, and sucking the gas out,” Johnson says. “Instead of it emanating into the atmosphere, you’re sucking it all to one place, and basically, you put it into a flare and burn it. So, that’s better than emitting it to the atmosphere because you’re destroying it in the flare—the chemical process of burning it destroys it.”Although this does reduce odors for the local community and methane emissions, the gas is not being put to beneficial use. Systems like the ones Vision RNG installs maximizes LFG collection and no gas is emitted to the atmosphere, thus reducing odors and emissions even further while transforming the problem into a valuable product.LFG: Challenges and Benefits&nbsp; Vision RNG focuses on landfill gas projects exclusively, due to the scale and economic efficiency of the process. “We like landfills because of the consistency of the gas and the volume of it,” he says. “One good-sized landfill project is probably five to 20 times the size of [a] digester, as far as the amount of gas ... There’s a great efficiency there, and that helps with the ... economics of building the gas processing plants.”Working out the chemistry of waste degradation in anerobic digester facilities—which process food or animal waste, turning it into methane—can be a challenge, and Vision RNG prefers to let the landfill do the decomposition on its own. However, LFG comes with its own processing challenges, according to Johnson. Because the waste decomposition happens in the uncontrolled environment of the landfill’s depths, the chemical composition of the emitted methane is outside of Vision RNG’s control. For this reason, the processing plant must be able to handle the variable parameters of raw LFG and clean it up to pipeline quality. “The benefit of the digester is [that] you have a narrower range of what you’re getting in the way of gas out of the digester, and we have sort of a wider chemical makeup of what could be in there,” Johnson says. “That will vary from landfill to landfill, based on what kind of waste they have [put] in the landfill over the years.”Because the landfill acts as a “big digester,” examining the makeup of a landfill’s contents is a key part of the project development process along with studying parameters such as local rainfall and temperature, all of which play a role in determining the quality and volume of LFG.&nbsp;Vision RNG customizes the process for each project, utilizing its in-house project and construction management expertise as well as its engineering team, determining which design is the best fit. The company is not associated with any particular technology provider, allowing the freedom to use whichever technology will work best at a given location. “We look at picking and choosing the right technology for the right application of a certain landfill,” Johnson says. Factors such as the gas’ chemical composition and the landfill’s size help select which technology will work best. The team will examine waste intake logs to aid in determining the &nbsp;amount of organic material is present—more organic material equals more LFG. Landfill density, depth and geometry also play a role in determining the rate of gas expulsion and length of time during which the gas is produced.Process Flow&nbsp;&nbsp; The process for developing an LFG-to-RNG project can be divided into three main sections, according to Johnson. First, Vision RNG optimizes—or installs—a gas collection system.&nbsp;Smaller landfills may not yet have a gas collection system in place. In this situation, Vision RNG will help the landfill operator install a system designed for optimal LFG collection. For example, if a landfill had 20 wells in place to meet requirements, Johnson and his team may recommend installing 60 wells in a smaller area to collect more gas. “It absolutely keeps any methane from leaking out at that point because you’re sucking even more of it out,” he says. “And it gives us a lot more gas volume, and that’s what we want because we’re going to put it to beneficial use.”In the second phase, Vision RNG installs a processing plant onsite that cleans the gas stream, purifying it to pipeline-quality methane. The third piece of the project that Vision RNG works out is the problem of how and where to sell the RNG. “Probably 90% of the time we’re going to build a small pipeline to interconnect with a commercial pipeline that can buy our gas,” Johnson says. “And that pipeline we’re connecting to has some specification as to the chemical composition of that methane stream and how much volume they can take.”The pipeline may only need to be 1,000 feet or a few miles long, depending on the location. Metering equipment to measure the quality and volume of the gas will also be installed wherever the two lines intersect. If there is no pipeline access, the gas can be compressed and moved by truck, which is more expensive but may be necessary in an area with no pipeline nearby. RNG derived from LFG has a higher carbon intensity (CI) score—40 to 50 points—than most RNG obtained from digesters, which can attain a negative CI score.&nbsp;Once injected into the pipeline, the gas can be used for a wide range of applications. Vision RNG’s fuel has been used to help decarbonize the vehicle fuels market as a low-CI alternative to fossil fuel natural gas for trucks running on compressed natural gas. Another use for the company’s RNG is in gas utilities, as some have set goals to displace 5% to 15% of their total volume with RNG. The third application Johnson discusses is electricity generation via an RNG-powered generator. This renewable energy could be used for data centers or electric utilities.Good All Around&nbsp; LFG projects offer benefits for everyone involved, according to Johnson. Installing a landfill gas RNG project solves problems for local residents and landfill gas operators, as well as offering Vision RNG a source of raw LFG.Not only do landfill operators solve public relations issues caused by odors and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but they also receive financial benefits from the project. Vision RNG generally contracts the gas rights from the landfill for 20 to 30 years, and the landfill gets a portion of Vision’s profits, granting them another income stream. As new landfills have become more difficult to permit, Johnson believes that the trend toward permit expansions and extensions will continue. As this happens, Vision RNG could also seek to extend its contract for purchasing the landfill’s gas as long as it continues to operate.“One of the reasons I’m doing this is because I like the business model ... it’s good for everybody,” Johnson says. “It’s good for the community, and it’s good for us, because we get a product that we wouldn’t otherwise have. We’re decarbonizing the methane emissions coming out of the landfill and we’re displacing fossil fuel because we’re generating a renewable source of natural gas versus a hydrocarbon natural gas. And [the landfill is] getting money out of it through the royalty. I think it’s good, good and good.”Author: Katie Schroeder&nbsp; Associate Editor, Biomass Magazine&nbsp; Katie.schroeder@bbiinternational.com&nbsp;

2025-01-17 - Executing a Vision for the Common Good (Biomass Magazine)

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Just three years after its renewable natural gas industry debut, Vision RNG has made significant accomplishments that align with its mission to provide mid-sized landfill owners with solutions to capture, process and commercialize landfill gas.

Executing a Vision for the Common Good

Executing a Vision for the Common Good

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