Westport Attending COP21 Events in Paris

One of two Canadian companies chosen to showcase innovative climate change solutions 

The Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework on Climate Change (COP 21), taking place now, is expected to attract more than 40,000 delegates from 195 countries.

As the political leaders leave Paris and policy makers focus on writing the framework, industry has been gathering to share ideas at Solutions COP21, which is taking place at Paris’ Grand Palais until December 10, 2015.

Wesptort's Nadège Leclercq speaks with Solutions COP21 attendees

Westport was invited to participate in an industry exhibition on innovative solutions to address climate change, presented by the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) and France’s National Institute of Industrial Property (INPI). To demonstrate the important role that technology and collaboration play in the creation of climate change solutions, WIPO and INPI are presenting a 200 sq. m exhibit and holding discussion forums focused on climate change innovation. Westport is one of only two Canadian companies to be featured alongside more than 60 other innovators selected by WIPO and INPI from 70 countries worldwide.

LNG to Meet More U.S. Fleet Needs with Tax Fix

Why are some U.S. fleets eager for winter? This summer’s big news for liquefied natural gas (LNG) means fleets running on the fuel will benefit beginning this winter. A new law in the United States was enacted to bring LNG excise taxes measured in line with diesel on an energy basis – using diesel gallon equivalents (DGE). The new law will effect January 1, 2016.

Instead of being charged tax by volume as has been in the past, LNG will be taxed on its energy equivalent relative to diesel. Based on the high-fuel-use applications that LNG most benefits, which compete mainly with diesel fuel, this creates more easily equalized comparisons for fleet operators, as well as the tax benefits.

Closing the Loop: Fueling Trucks with the Organic Waste They Pick Up

When you placed your food waste at the curb last time, did you consider the journey it’s about to take? You could find it coming back down your street the next month as the fuel in the truck that picks up that week’s organic waste. That’s closer to Doc’s “flux capacitor” from the 1985 movie Back to the Future than most people ever imagined – and the fuel is powering trucks on American roads and around the world right now.

Biogas, or natural gas from organic sources, has been used for decades and was recognized as a renewable source for electricity. In the intervening years, natural gas fuel stations and the natural gas vehicle base has expanded, opening up the market for renewable natural gas (RNG) use in transportation.

Refuse operations across North America are embracing the opportunity to fuel trucks with the very waste they pick up. The RNG created with processed organic matter such as food scraps (or in other cases landfill gas) can power trucks equipped with a natural gas engine such as Cummins Westport ISX 12G or ISL G engines.

In North America, fleets and energy partnerships from Georgia to Quebec to California are embracing the concept, saving waste and money in the process. The vehicles operating on RNG from organic sources include refuse or sanitation trucks, pickup trucks, utility vehicles, and tractors.

The Columbus, Ohio quasar biodigestion facility

Environmental Defense Fund and University of Texas release Production Module Results for Methane Leakage

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) yesterday released the results of the first module of a multi-partner study on methane emissions in the natural gas fuel chain, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

This study provides another important data source to assess fugitive methane emissions associated with natural gas production. According to the study results, the methane leakage rate is 2,300 gigagrams (Gg) or 0.42% of gross production, which aligns with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) latest estimates of 2,545 Gg (2011 national emissions inventory).

It’s also interesting to note that 99% of methane that could potentially be emitted is captured (or prevented from being emitted to the atmosphere), showing the progress already made by the industry. Pneumatic controllers and equipment leakage at the production site have been singled out as ongoing sources of methane emissions, giving the industry direction on where more reductions can be made.

This module is part of a series of studies that will assess the entire natural gas production, processing and supply chain. The “pump to wheels” module is expected to be released early/mid 2014. Westport is a partner in this effort and is supplying technical support to West Virginia University researchers who are field testing vehicles with Westport and Cummins Westport engines.

Westport is participating in the EDF study to improve understanding of the greenhouse gas (GHG) emission reduction benefits of commercial and heavy duty natural gas vehicles and fueling stations. Studies like this, with a range of industry partners like Shell, Volvo, Westport, Cummins Westport and fleet operators, offer the opportunity to collect data under real-world operating conditions. The study is being rigorously peer-reviewed, and will advance industry and academic knowledge about the GHG emissions reduction benefits of heavy-duty natural gas vehicles. Each of the modules will contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of the potential for methane leakage and opportunities for innovation and improvement.

The use of natural gas in transportation is a relatively new market; one that is evolving and improving and with the potential for deeper GHG emission reductions compared to diesel. These types of collaborations will help advance the industry, drive improvements across engines, vehicles and stations and uncover best practices to further safeguard the environmental advantages of natural gas.

Telecom “Tower Power” in India Gets Natural Gas Boost from Westport

In July, we wrote about Westport’s participation in the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). On September 24, to coincide with the CGI annual meeting in New York, Westport announced its Commitment to Action to CGI. Westport will apply its expertise and technology, in partnership with others, to develop on-site power for individual mobile phone towers in India.

The three-year project, labelled Tower Power: Helping Rural Communities Establish Clean Energy Solutions, will ultimately switch five towers to natural gas or other gaseous fuel. It is the vision of Development Alternatives, one of the project partners in India, to reduce emissions from mobile phone towers, which currently consume about 2 billion litres of diesel fuel per year and emit more than 6.5 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2). Telecom towers are the largest consumers of diesel in India – more than railways.

Eighty-two percent of India’s existing 390,000 mobile phone towers are connected to the electrical grid; however, only 169,000 of those have reliable connections, causing telecom dependence on diesel-powered generators. With the telecom market in India growing to an estimated 500,000 towers and by 10 million customers per month (about 333,000 new customers each day!) by 2015, reliable power is essential.

Add to this is the fact that many villages near telecom towers are not on the grid at all. By generating power on site, the project team hopes that any residual electricity can be directed to areas that currently lack power.

There’s a clear opportunity for a cleaner solution - such as natural gas or biomass - to service the mobile phone towers and bring power to nearby people, while reducing levels of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The solution will involve developing a natural gas or biomass engine and fuel storage using available fuels, potentially pipeline gas to biofuels, depending on location and sources. An initial tower will be selected and four more will follow by 2015.

Westport is facilitator and a technology provider to this project, and will use its experience in engine technology and cryogenic storage to help design a solution for the telecom towers. Westport will recruit other partners and financial supporters to make this commitment a reality.

This specific use of natural gas power is new to Westport, but natural gas and other gaseous fuel engine technology is the core intellectual property of Westport. We have applied our knowledge for markets from oil-field power generation to pickup trucks to Class 8 trucks and beyond.

If successful, there’s potential to apply this option to other countries or regions where electrical grids are slow in development, unreliable or non-existent. There is the possibility for parts of Africa, Southeast Asia and perhaps China to apply this type of solution.

As part of the CGI efforts to tackle some of the world’s most pressing development issues, Westport was invited to make a commitment to improve life somewhere in the world. Applying core strengths to this challenging issue and partnering to create natural gas or biofuel engine-powered towers will provide a win to the local people, mobile phone users and environments of the tower locations in India. Westport and its employees win as well – through the satisfaction that so many improvements can be made from switching the tower power to natural gas or biofuel.

Biomethane: A Green, Renewable Fuel for Heavy-Duty Vehicles

by Karen Hamberg

Transport accounts for nearly one-quarter of global energy-related carbon-dioxide (CO₂) emissions. To achieve the necessary deep cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2050, transport must play a significant role. Current best-available and emerging vehicle technologies have the potential to deliver substantial reductions in CO₂ emissions but they need to be introduced rapidly, at a rate and on a scale that is unprecedented in the last 40 years of the transport evolution.^[1]  The transition to low-carbon alternatives will not be straightforward or unchallenged.^[2]

The reduction of GHG emissions from the transport sector will require: i) alternative fuels that enable vehicles to emit less CO₂ per unit of energy used through the use of less carbon-intensive energy sources, ii) efficiency improvements from new technologies and operational improvements for truck transport management that reduce the energy use of vehicles and, iii) modal shifts in urban short-distance travel and long-distance travel.^[3]

Biomethane or renewable natural gas has the potential to significantly reduce the carbon intensity of transportation and generate a range of economic, environmental and energy security benefits. In comparison to other low-carbon forms of transportation such as electric vehicles or hybrids, biomethane is suitable for heavy-duty transport applications using the Cummins Westport ISL G or Westport GX engines and delivers greater lifecycle GHG emission reduction than other biofuels. 

Biomethane can be produced from a variety of biomass and biogas sources including landfill gas, waste water treatment plants and other municipal, agricultural and forestry waste streams. Biogas is produced by the anaerobic digestion of biomass using purpose-built anaerobic digesters or via the process of thermal gasification. Biogas contains approximately 15–45% carbon dioxide (CO₂), 50–80% methane (CH₄) and impurities. It must be purified to pipeline quality standards; a minimum of 96% of methane before it can be used as a direct substitute for natural gas in natural gas fuelled vehicles.

Economics play a key role in what transport technologies and fuels are adopted and how biomass is used. Numerous studies have shown that biomethane costs compare favourably to diesel but the recent drop and stagnation in natural gas prices has changed the competitive landscape. Anaerobic digesters, biogas upgrading facilities and liquefaction are capital intensive processes and many biomethane business cases have been negatively impacted by inexpensive natural gas. With the discovery of natural gas shale plays and new horizontal drilling and fracturing technologies, North America has an abundant, long-term supply of affordable natural gas.

However, a new economic model is emerging where natural gas suppliers and utilities are looking to increase demand via new markets and add renewable content. Transportation provides an opportunity to increase demand and biomethane allows utilities to add renewable content, making natural gas an even greener energy source. This model is similar to electrical utilities adding alternative or renewable energy to the grid or fuel providers offering biofuels such as ethanol or biodiesel blends. A recent International Energy Agency (IEA) report notes that 25% of global agricultural and forestry residues could produce enough biomethane to meet 14.9% of current transportation fuel demand.^[4]

There are currently strong incentives for the increased use of renewable fuels in the transport sector worldwide. Some first-generation ethanol and biodiesel production routes have limitations with regard to resource efficiency and the reduction of greenhouse gases.^[5]  A transition is needed to much more sustainable feedstocks and approaches to biofuels production to ensure there is no competition with food/feed supplies and poor performance in terms of GHG cost-per-tonne or land-use efficiency.^[6]  Biomethane is a renewable energy source and presents an opportunity to turn abundant, marginal and zero-value waste products into useful fuel.

The transport sector is almost fully dependent on petroleum-derived fuels and finding alternatives remains a challenge. Deploying next generation technologies at the scale required will take time once they become commercially available.^[7]  Biomethane holds an advantage over liquid biofuels as the refining and distribution processes are established, the fuelling infrastructure is expanding and natural gas fuelled vehicles are currently available from more than 50 original equipment manufacturers (OEMs).  Compared to the majority of liquid biofuels in use today, biomethane often has a far better performance with regard to both land-use efficiency and life-cycle emissions thereby positioning biomethane as a strong candidate for becoming one of the most sustainable vehicle fuels in the near future.^[8]

1. International Energy Agency (2009) “Transport, Energy and CO₂: Moving Towards Sustainability” IEA/OECD, 2009
2. Sperling, Daniel and James S. Cannon eds. (2009) “Reducing Climate Impacts in the Transportation Sector” Springer Science and Business Media 2009 pp.7
3. International Energy Agency (2009) “Transport, Energy and CO₂: Moving Towards Sustainability” IEA/OECD, 2009
4. IEA (2010) “Sustainable Production of Second Generation Biofuels”. Available at http://www.iea.org/papers/2010/second_generation_biofuels.pdf
5. Borjesson, Pal and B. Mattiasson (2007) “Biogas as a Resource Efficient Vehicle Fuel”. Lund University, 2007. Available at http://www.globalbioenergy.org/uploads/media/0711_Boerjesson_Mathiasson_-_Biogas_as_a_resource-efficient_vehicle_fuel.pdf
6. International Energy Agency (2009) “Transport, Energy and CO₂: Moving Towards Sustainability” IEA/OECD, 2009
7. World Resources Institute (2008) “Plants at the Pump: Reviewing Biofuels’ Impacts and Policy Recommendations”. Available at http://www.wri.org/publication/plants-at-the-pump-brief
8. Borjesson, Pal and B. Mattiasson (2007) “Biogas as a Resource Efficient Vehicle Fuel”. Lund University, 2007. Available at http://www.globalbioenergy.org/uploads/media/0711_Boerjesson_Mathiasson_-_Biogas_as_a_resource-efficient_vehicle_fuel.pdf