Natural Gas News – May 24, 2019

Maine natural gas company has big plans to turn cow manure into renewable energy

WGME News reported: Summit Utilities said Thursday that it will invest $20 million and create up to eight full-time jobs in a partnership with eight Clinton- area dairy farmers in a project designed to generate clean energy. The parent of Augusta-based Summit Natural Gas of Maine said it will heat cow manure to produce high-quality fertilizer for the farms and renewable natural gas for its own pipeline. The company will construct an anaerobic digester in Clinton to process the manure. The partnership is part of Summit’s sustainability initiatives. “The ability to make homegrown energy, create green jobs and support some farms while doing something good for the planet is a rare opportunity,” said Angus King III, Summit Utilities’ chief development officer. “We’re really excited to be doing our first project here in Maine.” For more on this story visit wgme.com or click https://bit.ly/30ISApu

Why natural gas is the future fuel of choice for UPS

Supply Chain Dive reports: There are a few options when it comes to transitioning to a more sustainable power source for vehicles: electricity, hydrogen fuel cells, liquefied natural gas, to name a few. In 2013, UPS began transitioning parts of its Class 8 heavy-duty trucks to renewable natural gas (RNG). Six years later, the company has made the largest purchase of RNG in U.S. history. The reasons UPS went with RNG to power its fleet involved the fuel becoming more widely available, its ability to seamlessly integrate into an existing natural gas system and its “very good emissions profile,” Mike Casteel, UPS director of fleet procurement, said in an interview with Supply Chain Dive. “Today, we have over 50 natural gas stations and several thousand natural gas trucks operating in the United States,” Casteel said. For more on this story visit supplychaindive.com or click https://bit.ly/2QnH265