Canada's Irving Oil Gets in the RNG Game

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Researched by Daniel Graeber for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Pointing to larger regional trends, Canada's Irving Oil (Saint John, New Brunswick) said it made arrangements with a renewable natural gas provider to supply the nation's largest refinery with a carbon-negative product.

Irving Oil has now established a relationship with Anaergia (Burlington, Ontario), a company specializing in the processing of organic waste matter from landfills into an end product considered renewable by industry providers.

Irving said it will receive about 350 million cubic feet of renewable natural gas (RNG) per year at its refinery in New Brunswick, which is Canada's largest.

For Irving, it's part of a broader strategy to reduce its own emissions.

"We are making strides in achieving our 2030 goal of a 30% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions as we shift to lower-carbon energies," said Ian Whitcomb, the president of Irving.

For the region as a whole, Irving believes that sourcing RNG will prevent the release of more than 40,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) equivalent emissions per year.

To put the volume from RNG in perspective, most U.S. shale basins can produce about 1 billion cubic feet of natural gas per day. But RNG does not have the same overall footprint--both at the well pad in terms of infrastructure, and in environmental terms--as conventional natural gas production.

"This RNG is recognized as carbon-negative due to its ability to capture more methane emissions than the organic waste would have otherwise created when landfilled," Irving stated.

Anaergia's RNG is sourced for landfill operations. Developers can capture the emissions from the decomposition of organic matter, remove impurities and, in this case, send it on through a pipeline, reducing the need for Irving to draw on conventional natural gas supplies.

Anaergia has a global footprint, delivering its first-ever volumes of RNG to a facility in Denmark that will yield the equivalent of 1.4 million British thermal units (MMBtu) per year. Four more facilities are under construction in Italy and could be commissioned early in 2023.

Irving, meanwhile, has its own objectives. The Irving Oil refinery in New Brunswick is the largest, with a processing capacity of 320,000 barrels per day. More than 80% of the refined petroleum products make their way to the U.S.

But Irving Oil is making strides, along with other regional players, to clean up its act. In July, it said it was backing expanding the hydrogen processing capacity at New Brunswick, with an eye on product delivery to downstream consumers by late 2023.

Irving already uses hydrogen at its refinery to reduce the sulfur levels in its refined petroleum products, but believes it can be a regional supplier.

In November, the company opened its first-ever electric vehicle charging stations branded with the Irving name.

The raw gas emitted from the decomposition of organic matter is typically about 50% methane and therefore must undergo various processing steps to remove moisture, hydrogen sulfides and other impurities before it can be used. The end product is almost pure methane that can go into conventional pipelines for heat and electricity providers.

Right now, RNG is more expensive than fossil fuels, though the premium is diminishing and it could be cost competitive with conventional natural gas within a decade. Compared with the cleaner forms of hydrogen, meanwhile, RNG is already in widespread commercial use.

While there is no single resource that will decarbonize the economy, the International Energy Agency found that RNG will play a long-term role in the clean energy future.

Canada's future is getting cleaner. Supporters say Canada has the RNG potential to develop the equivalent of about 30% of conventional natural gas production, and there are already more than a dozen facilities online.

Industrial Info Resources (IIR) is the leading provider of industrial market intelligence. Since 1983, IIR has provided comprehensive research, news and analysis on the industrial process, manufacturing and energy related industries. IIR's Global Market Intelligence (GMI) platform helps companies identify and pursue trends across multiple markets with access to real, qualified and validated plant and project opportunities. Across the world, IIR is tracking more than 200,000 current and future projects worth $17.8 trillion (USD).