News
16-Nov-2011
Greenlane Continues to Excel in North America - Latest Installation is Ontario's First Renewable Natural Gas
Greenlane Biogas, a subsidiary of the Flotech Group of companies, is continuing to excel in the North American market – with six contracts won in its first two years and a strong order pipeline– Greenlane are anticipating rapid growth.
Greenlane Biogas’ first contract in North America was a milestone project in Canada - a biogas upgrading plant injecting directly into the gas grid. This was swiftly followed by several other contracts for mid-to-large capacity Greenlane plants, which are now dotted across the continent.
The most recent installation is Ontario’s first source of renewable natural gas (RNG), part of an extensive upgrade to the City of Hamilton’s Woodward Avenue Waste Water Treatment Plant (WWTP). The Greenlane Rimu, which upgrades 10,000Nm³ of raw biogas to pipeline quality gas every day, was commissioned ahead of schedule, with the product gas on specification swiftly.
“The City of Hamilton had been investigating the feasibility of increasing the production of biogas to augment our Combined Heat and Power (CHP) gensets that we had installed a few years ago” said Dan Chauvin, Director Water and Wastewater Engineering for the City of Hamilton. “Sustainability and striving to be an energy neutral facility is an important part of our mandate and maximising the energy recovery potential from our biosolids and diversifying the end-use through CHP or RNG is a large step in the right direction.”
CH2M Hill is the engineering and construction company responsible for integrating the system into the Woodward WWTP. “We see renewable natural gas from biogas as an option that will become more and more attractive to WWTP operators in North America” said Ernie Maschner, Project Manager for CH2M Hill. “This subsystem was a small part of our overall project at the Woodward WWTP, but it was an area where our customer was keenly interested in pursuing.”
“We are meeting the City of Hamilton’s needs by wheeling the gas to their other sites while ensuring appropriate gas quality,” said Ed Seaward, Manager of Market Opportunity Development for Union Gas. “The gas output is monitored to ensure that it is interchangeable with natural gas. Up to 10,000 m3 of biogas will be upgraded per day when the facility is fully operational which, on an annual basis, is equivalent to the amount needed to heat 1,400 typical homes in Ontario. This project is an important step for us to build on as we look to provide renewable natural gas as part of our supply portfolio to our customers.”
Greenlane’s proprietary water scrubbing technology, patented TSA / PSA purifier and proven rotary compressors provide for stringent gas quality requirements of 97% methane, lower electrical energy consumption than other systems and minimised environmental impact due to recycling used water back into the system. With a track record of more than 50 installed projects and having delivered the largest biogas plant in the world so far, Greenlane is the worldwide leader in biomethane and intends to extend this position further into the North American market.