Hungry for Fuel – Compressed Natural Gas (CNG)

Kirstin Smith wrote a very complimentary article about the succesful growth of our refuel plant on rewmag.com and highlighting the future the benefits to Sacramento.

Some excerpts are reproduced below:

Hungry for Fuel

Kirstin Smith (October 16, 2013)

Fueling a vehicle with food waste was a concept made famous by the movie Back to the Future. But now, almost 30 years later, what was once a futuristic idea, has become reality.

The Organic Waste Recycling Facility at the South Area Transfer Station (SATS) in Sacramento, Calif., began accepting 25 tons of food waste per day in December 2012, collected by Atlas Disposal Industries from area food processing companies, restaurants and supermarkets. Through anaerobic digestion (AD), the food waste is converted into renewable natural gas, electricity and heat, with material remaining from the process being turned into fertilizer and soil amendments.

Clean World Partners, Gold River, Calif., broke ground on an expansion of the facility in June, allowing the facility to accept 100 tons per day of food waste. Atlas Disposal has opened California’s first AD-based renewable natural gas fueling station, which uses natural gas produced at the recycling facility to fuel the company’s fleet as well as other area vehicles running on compressed natural gas (CNG). Currently CNG powers 25 percent of Atlas Disposal’s vehicles.

Once the expansion is complete, the Sacramento biodigester is expected to produce 700,000 gallons per year of renewable CNG. Atlas calls the fuel it produces ReFuel and describes it as a carbon-neutral fuel that is chemically identical to fossil natural gas and 100 percent compatible with existing CNG combustion systems. The system is expected to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 5,800 tons per year.

For the full article follow this link: Hungry for Fuel