Longmont's Newest Sustainable Fuel: Sewage Gas

LONGMONT, CO -- Longmont will soon be able to transform the City's sewage gas into fuel for its trash trucks thanks to the now-under-construction Biogas Treatment and Renewable Natural Gas Fueling Station Project. Project manager John Gage says that the program is "directly in line with the City's Sustainability Plan," as recycled waste from Longmont's past stands poised to power the recycling and waste collection of the future.

“In 2018, Longmont completed the City’s first greenhouse gas inventory to develop a baseline of greenhouse gas emissions," explained Gage in a statement. "Based on the results, we prioritized a number of strategies to reduce citywide greenhouse gas emissions, such as the transition to RNG trash trucks.”

The City plans to replace 11 diesel trash trucks with haulers that will be capable of using the RNG fuel, and according to a project press release, the swap will offset more than 100,000 gallons of diesel fuel annually. That adds up to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by about 1,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalents per year, or the equivalent of removing 200 cars from the road.

Currently, some of the potential biogas fuel is used to power the wastewater treatment plant itself, but according to city figures, roughly 75 percent of it is flared off. To effectively use it, the city needs to develop the ability to both remove contaminants and transport the fuel.

The project's design and construction has been contracted to Carollo Engineers, a top national design firm with local offices in Broomfield and Littleton, and CGRS, a Fort Collins-based environmental services and construction company. CGRS will serve as project manager and construction contractor and will design the new fueling station while Carollo pioneered the specific biogas treatment system.

“Longmont will be the first city on the Front Range to implement a renewable vehicle fuel project," said Becky Luna, Carollo's design manager in a statement. "Other utilities have been looking at Longmont as a model for their operations.”

The project will involve two sites. The first is at Longmont’s current wastewater plant, 501 1st Ave., where CGRS will construct interconnections and gas treatment equipment to clean the sewage gas. The RNG pipeline will then run from the plant to a second site on the northwest corner of the property off of South Martin Street. There, CGRS plans to build both a 17,000-square-foot building with four bays for indoor fueling of the trash fleet and a two-story, 5,000-square-foot administration building.

By building the RNG Fueling Station now, Longmont will be able to take advantage of credits from the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard program, as well as a $1 million grant from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs.

“This state-of-the-art project is sustainability in action," explained Luna. "The City will be able to make use of an untapped resource, reduce greenhouse gases and save on fuel costs.”

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Photo via Renee Schiavone/Patch