[Digestion] VOLVO's biogas project exported.

Wed Jan 30 12:16:29 CST 2008

Again...additional p.o.v. from SWEDEN:

"The latest Volvo stories

Sustainable Mobility: Volvo Cars exports biogas project.

Since the end of the ’nineties, Volvo Cars has worked together with AB Volvo
and the Göteborg City Council to promote the increased use of biogas as a
vehicle fuel in western Sweden. The project has been so successful that it
is now being exported to other cities.

There are now more than 3000 gas-powered vehicles and 19 fuel stations for
vehicle gas in the West Sweden region. Every month, biogas replaces more
than half a million litres of petrol and thus contributes to a reduction in
the emission of harmful substances. Emissions of carbon dioxide are cut by
630 tonnes.
International interest is now so considerable that a special project –
Biogas Cities – has been started up by Volvo Cars, AB Volvo, the West Sweden
Region and City of Göteborg’s commerce department, Business Region Göteborg.
The aim is to export western Sweden’s cooperative method, gas-powered
vehicles and biogas technology.

“Many countries are showing considerable interest in learning more about
biogas and gas-powered vehicles,” says Niklas Gustavsson, project manager
for Biogas Cities at Volvo Cars. Representatives of California and several
cities in Britain have visited Göteborg and Volvo Cars to learn about the
technology and the factors behind the success of the project.

Cooperation delivers results

“The secret behind the success of this project lies in our unique
cooperative approach,” reveals Niklas Gustavsson. 
“All those involved in the project have helped make it as beneficial as
possible to use biogas in vehicles. The City of Göteborg has provided free
parking for gas-powered cars, offered incentives for environmentally
optimised taxis and assisted in the creation of a favourable infrastructure
for refuelling. We vehicle manufacturers have invested in technology for gas
power for both cars and buses. Together we have developed an offer that is
attractive to customers, something that none of us would have been able to
accomplish single-handedly,” continues Niklas Gustavsson.

Sweden’s biogas production is unique

Sweden leads the way as regards the production of biogas for vehicles.
Göteborg has the world’s largest number of passenger cars and buses running
on biogas. There are several advantages with biogas: it can be produced
locally from different types of biological waste, for example from household
refuse, at sewage works and from food industry by-products. What is more, it
is an entirely renewable fuel, so its combustion and use produces negligible
emissions of carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas.
“Sweden’s distribution infrastructure for vehicle gas is currently 45%
biogas and 55% natural gas, which cuts carbon dioxide emissions by 55 %
compared with petrol”, explains Niklas Gustavsson.

Busy timetable of visits from cities near and far

For three days, visitors get to see several production facilities for biogas
and they get to test-drive biogas-powered cars and buses. In addition,
several of the experts involved in the project, such as the City Traffic
Management Department and biogas company Malmberg, offer detailed
presentations. The programme ends with a discussion of how biogas can be a
good economic venture. 

During the course of this year, politicians from both Europe and America
will be invited to visit Göteborg as part of the Biogas Cities programme."

Frank J. Heller, MPA
KATAHDIN ENERGY WORKS
12 Belmont St.
Brunswick, ME 04011-3004
207.729.6090
http://mysite.verizon.net/fjheller/

-----Original Message-----
From: digestion-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:digestion-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Katahdin Energy
Works
Sent: Wednesday, January 30, 2008 3:54 PM
To: 'Srinivas Kasulla'; digestion at listserv.repp.org
Subject: Re: [Digestion] Digestion Digest, Vol 19, Issue 16

Not so sure about this claim.

HONDA's natural gas car engine produced emissions that were 'cleaner than
the surrounding air' and beat every other car engine/propulsion source
available:

	Arai's team eventually managed to detect their engine's "nearly
unmeasurable" emissions. It suppressed 	hydrocarbons, nitrous oxides, and
carbon monoxide at least 60 times better than the 1997 federal limits 	for
new cars. It even bested California's much stricter targets for ultralow
emission vehicles (ULEV), the 	world's toughest goals, by a factor of ten.
In fact, Honda's natural-gas Civic accomplished all this 	without
sacrificing the benefits of good old internal combustion, such as more
horsepower and longer 	driving range, or the lower cost of mass production.

Bio-gas, cleaned and enhanced, is burned in engines extensively in Sweden;
I'm surprised they didn't used a side by side comparison with the vehicles
in Gottenburg for example. 

I find it difficult to believe the combustion system would allow that much
unburn't methane into the atmosphere, and would like verification of this
given Honda's recent lowest ever emission rating.

Then there is the radiative effect of methane in the atmosphere...at which
level, and when compared to aviation emissions of water vapour. Methane in
the upper atmosphere's 'greenhouse layer' and for that matter CO2, is
relatively minor when compared to the impact of water vapour on nighttime
radiative forcing. 

Something is wrong with these conclusions and I don't have time to delve
into it. 

Frank J. Heller, MPA
KATAHDIN ENERGY WORKS
12 Belmont St.
Brunswick, ME 04011-3004
207.729.6090
http://mysite.verizon.net/fjheller/

-----Original Message-----
From: digestion-bounces at listserv.repp.org
[mailto:digestion-bounces at listserv.repp.org] On Behalf Of Srinivas Kasulla
Sent: Tuesday, January 29, 2008 5:19 PM
To: digestion at listserv.repp.org
Subject: Re: [Digestion] Digestion Digest, Vol 19, Issue 16

GAS POWERED BUSES A CLIMATE THREAT..............IS IT TRUEEE ?????

Gas powered buses are often launched as a cheaper alternative to
trolleybuses. However, they emit substances that are more harmful to
the climate than even diesel buses.

The world politicians efforts on combatting global warming is
concentrating on reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions.

But is that really so important compared to methane (CH4)?

The 'relative greenhouse effect' of methane is estimated at about 17
times that of carbon dioxide. But it is true that the emissions of
carbon dioxide still are much greater than those of methane. So the
'historic' global warming effect that we have seen might be caused
largely by carbon dioxide.

However, the emissions of methane are increasing on a much faster rate
than those of carbon dioxide. It is no doubt that global warming in
the future more and more will be associated with methane.

In addition, the use of methane-containing fuels is even advocated by
environmental interests. The methane in the atmosphere come from a
variety of sources, among those most important are agriculture,
garbage dump sites, exploration of natural gas fields, pipelines for
natural gas, leakages from gas depots or gas filling stations,
emissions from end use of natural gas or biogas in household, industry
or vehicles.

The fact is that natural gas as well as 'biogas' contain 95-98%
methane. Environmental organisations use to promote the use of
'biogas' as an alternative to fossil fuels. However, the CH4 emissions
must be taken into consideration. 'Biogas' is often produced from
garbage or harvested grass that is anaerobically treated. If not
biogas was produced, some methane would anyhow be produced from the
dump site but the majority of the coal-containing compounds would be
transformed into other hydrocarbons or just carbon with time. So there
is a considerable net emission of methane (and also carbon dioxide) if
biogas is produced and used in vehicles. Still worse is of course the
use of natural gas in buses.

The use of natural gas - or biogas - in buses is usually associated
with significant emissions of methane due to that engines are tuned in
to reduce emissions of nitrogen oxides which otherwise would be a
problem for gas-powered vehicles. This is especially true for cold
starts and during city traffic conditions.

A Swedish study assesses the greenhouse effect of methane emissions
from biogas-powered vehicles to about 3 times the greenhouse effect of
carbon dioxide emissions from diesel-powered vehicles. Even if
considered the shorter average life of methane emissions compared to
CO2, the greenhouse impact from biogas buses seem to be far higher
than the greenhouse impact of diesel buses. Natural gas powered buses
are still worse since they also emit fossil CO2. More to read in
http://the-greenhouse-effect.blogspot.com/2006/06/is-methane-big-danger.html

This is thus a contradiction - that environmental organisations call
for the use of gas-powered vehicles when methane emissions might
become the most significant global warming problem in the future.

If we cannot control the methane buildup in the atmosphere there might
be more severe effects as methane is released from 'frozen' deposits
at sea bottom when the water warms up. The resulting greenhouse effect
might be much worse than what we are now discussing - there might be
an increase in global temperatures of 20-30 degrees C which in fact
has happened historically, last time during Eocene period som 55
million years ago when the North Pole had a climate with temperatures
about +20 degrees C and of course no ice.

So try to stop the methane emissions before it is too late. Use cheap
power from nuclear energy instead of natural gas or biogas wherever
feasible. Use electric trolley buses in cities with zero emissions
instead of experimenting with gas-powered buses.

was just wanted to rectify whether this news is true or not.

with regards
srinivas kasulla
Mumbai9869179601

On 1/29/08, digestion-request at listserv.repp.org
<digestion-request at listserv.repp.org> wrote:
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>    1. Re: Solid Waste (francois chartier)
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> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Message: 1
> Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:35:12 -0800 (PST)
> From: francois chartier <francoischartier at yahoo.com>
> Subject: Re: [Digestion] Solid Waste
> To: digestion at listserv.repp.org
> Message-ID: <731715.50193.qm at web50406.mail.re2.yahoo.com>
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
>
> Hi all,
>
> As anyone experience in biogaz using solid waste? What
> type of digester, handling, etc.
> cheers
> Francois
>
>
>
>
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> End of Digestion Digest, Vol 19, Issue 16
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-- 
SRINIVAS KASULLA
M E D C/ M E S N
09869179601

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http://www.adelaide.edu.au/biogas/
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