Renewable natural gas (RNG) is not popular with environmental regulators such as the EPA and the California Air Resources Board (CARB).
Engine manufacturers don’t get credits for selling natural gas engines, and it’s not considered a zero-emissions fuel by government agencies that regulate transportation sector pollutants. But it’s a source of frustration for fleets who have proven that using renewable natural gas is a relatively simple way to significantly reduce their overall emissions and, in the case of CO2, can even be carbon negative.
This is possible because RNG is produced from methane, typically collected from landfills or dairy farms, which is much more hazardous to air quality than CO2. When captured and converted to RNG, methane is removed from the atmosphere in a true circular economy.
RNG proponents debated the issue at length during a panel discussion last week at the American Trucking Associations Management Conference & Exhibition.
“The RNG is here today, the engines are here today and they are certified to the cleanest standards today. If we want to improve the environment and try to solve the problems associated with climate change, we should take advantage more of what is available today rather than 10 to 20 years from now,” said Matt Spears, executive director of regulatory affairs at Cummins.
He added that this technology “could be a game-changer in making it possible to comply with these impending emissions regulations without forcing fleets to turn to electric batteries.”
Waste Management operates the largest fleet of RNG-powered Class 8 trucks in North America with more than 13,000 trucks on the road today. By 2026, it hopes to fuel its entire fleet with RNG produced at the landfills it manages, and by then it will still have additional capacity that it can sell publicly.
Marty Tufte, Waste Management’s fleet manager, said natural gas was a welcome tool for the fleet, whose continuous, high-rpm use was not ideal for diesel engines and system requirements. exhaust gas post-treatment. He also noted that the price of natural gas has been very stable for decades, unlike the volatile price of diesel.
But vocational fleets are not the only ones interested in this fuel. Matt Copot is vice president of fleet management for less-than-truckload carrier Saia.
“We’re pretty new to this,” he said. “We started to realize a few years ago that this was not a technological vacuum. It opened our eyes. Right now, we’re in the early stages of adoption. ESG (environment, sustainability and governance) is an important initiative for Saia and we will continue on this path realizing that it is a real fueling option for us in the future.”
Clean Energy has more than 600 commercial vehicle natural gas stations in the United States and Canada, and has the capacity to double volumes, said Brett Lindsay, vice president of national accounts. He showed a map showing how easy it is to find CNG on long-haul routes across the United States.
“From an operational point of view, we consider that these vehicles are easier to implement than electric vehicles,” underlined Mr. Copot of Saia. “We tried other alternative fuel vehicles and there were more learnings. These are a little more traditional.”
Cummins has introduced a 15-liter X15N engine that addresses fleet concerns regarding power and payload. Ryan Bankerd, director of sustainability at UPS, is encouraged by the early performance data of this engine in his fleet.
X15N engine works well
“We have good data on fuel consumption,” he explained, adding that RNG compares favorably to battery electric and other technologies when it comes to total cost of ownership.
According to Mr. Spear, this is a simpler design. Instead of a diesel particulate filter and selective catalytic reduction, there is a three-way catalyst similar to that found on light-duty spark-ignition vehicles. Diesel requirements will soon become even more complex as EPA27 emissions standards will require higher-performance emissions aftertreatment systems, including electric heaters.
Waste Management’s Tufte said its fleet employs about 3,500 technicians and the simplicity of natural gas engine technology is well-received by them. Autonomy also improves. Eric Bippus, executive vice president of Hexagon Agility’s business group, noted that a decade ago, a CNG-powered truck could have a range of 350-400 miles (560-640 km). Today, two tanks located in the rear of the cab and two side supports can allow a truck to travel 1,200-1,300 miles (1,920-2,080 km).
But even though the environmental footprint of RNG-powered trucks may be carbon negative, regulators still worry about traces of tailpipe emissions.
“We’re in conversation with CARB every week, if not every day,” said Cummins’ Mr. Spears. Although Cummins is also involved in building battery-electric and hydrogen fuel cell powertrains, Spears said it currently receives no credit for the sale of natural gas engines, which are treated the same way. than diesel engines by regulatory authorities.
Taking winnings off the table
According to Tufte, this is a flawed approach that “loses gains that could be made by waiting for other technologies to mature.”
Mr Lindsay points out that CNG has the lowest well-to-wheel carbon intensity of any fuel available, even electric batteries. And Mr Spears points out that methane that is converted to RNG instead of being released into the atmosphere is 24 times more potent than CO2.
Mr Bankerd said more education was needed to make these benefits understood by those who oversee the transport industry’s emissions standards.
“There’s a lot of talk about hydrogen,” he added. “There’s a lot of talk about electromobility. They are very sexy. Internal combustion engines have been around for a long time.”
“Our experience has shown that many battery-electric technologies are displacing other types of technologies,” Spears agreed, citing examples such as power tools and lawn mowers. But he argued that “RNG does not appear to be a transition fuel to zero emissions, but a long-term solution.”
Tufte added that Waste Management is already planning its truck orders for 2026 and 2027 and he doesn’t think electric is the best option at this time. “We cannot be forced to adopt technology that is not ready when it comes to developing a fleet plan and strategy,” he explained.
Mr Bankerd adds: “This is a circular economy. As sustainability specialists, we are always talking about how to create a circular economy and move away from the “take, make and throw away” model. RNG brings us into this closed-loop circular economy, and that’s where the powerful message for the industry lies.”
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