Blazing an Oregon Biogas Trail: Why a Wastewater Treatment Facility Chose Vehicle Fuel over Cogeneration and how it is implementing the Project

Clean Water Services (the District) has been exploring the steps to initiate a project that will use biogas as vehicle fuel at the Rock Creek Advanced Wastewater Treatment Facility. The facility currently flares a portion of its biogas and was interested in using that flared portion for developing a Renewable Compressed Natural Gas (R-CNG) fueling station to further reduce greenhouse gas emissions, more fully use a renewable resource generated by the facility, and develop an additional revenue stream to support the facility’s core mission of wastewater treatment. Planning efforts have focused on system sizes based on gas availability, treatment technology to provide biogas clean up, fuel specification requirements based on pipeline quality and CNG engine quality, interconnection considerations with natural gas utility, costs for treatment and potential revenues, storage considerations, and land use considerations.At the start of the planning period, the District had obtained grant funding of $2m to support a project for vehicle fueling. During the planning process, the District also learned that additional grant funding was available for cogeneration system improvements. The District is now considering the optimal blending of cogeneration and R-CNG facilities to take advantage of grant funding and best use the available biogas. The paper discusses the planning process for R-CNG facilities, challenges to implementation of the facilities, and the status of the District’s project.