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Discussed progress with biogas presentation, contacts for additional information for presentation, steps toward drafting a biogas recommendation (i.e. multi-SWATeam meeting), timeline for presentation and recommendation completion. Also discussed the potential for the iWG to put forward this recommendation as opposed to SWATeam(s).
Discussed inter-SWATeam collaboration on future biogas recommendation, reviewed and edited presentation regarding biogas production and use. Shared data on dining hall food waste to biogas potential and routes to acquire life cycle cost analyses and additional data for biogas presentation (e.g. fertilizer potential of AD digestate).
The Energy SWATeam's November 2019 meeting involved discussions on the iWG feedback for the draft 2020 iCAP Objectives created by the SWATeam members. Edits to the draft objectives were made.
See attached for the iWG Meeting Minutes from 11/22/2019.
David and I met on November 20, 2019 for our first meeting following his Biogas on Campus email on November 13th. David received an email from Doug Wolters from the College of ACES, and Doug said that he will discuss this project with his Dean. David had not heard from anyone else.
We discussed how to proceed with this project. I will try to get in touch with Lance Schideman to get his opinion on this subject. I introduced David to the SWATeam Clerk of the Transportation and Zero Waste SWATeam, Julija Sakutyte. I will talk to the Transportation SWATeam about a possible collaboration opportunity with the Energy SWATeam and Zero Waste SWATeam. David will also talk to the Energy SWATeam about this possible collaboration.
I have set up a biweekly meeting with David, and a monthly meeting with Meredith Moore for this project.
Agenda includes: iCAP 2020 timeline, Clean Energy planning, and Zero Waste planning
Following is an email sent by David Rivera-Kohr regarding Biogas on-campus to several faculty and staff at the U of I.
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Hello,
My name is David Rivera-Kohr and I’m a student member of the Energy SWATeam. I want to propose using biogas for energy on campus. Since burning biogas for energy is effectively carbon neutral, this would bring us closer to our iCAP goal of achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
Biogas is a huge untapped resource for energy production at the U of I. Rather than utilize the methane from animal manure and carcasses and food waste, we allow much of it to escape into the atmosphere. The Sanitary District currently uses municipal waste, restaurant grease, industrial food processing waste and campus dining hall food waste as feedstocks for its own anaerobic digester to produce biogas which is burned to generate 25-30% of the facility's energy. However, the Sanitary District does not want to dedicate digestion capacity to manure due to the need to accommodate growth of the local area (i.e. anticipated growth of student population). Furthermore, the Sanitary District is not a UIUC facility, therefore its use of biogas does not alleviate campus energy demand or contribute to our net-zero emissions objective.
I have a few ideas for biogas production on campus I would like feedback on:
1. Add a biogas siphoning system to the manure storage tanks at the Beef & Sheep Farm.
2. Conduct a study to determine which UIUC facility produces the most methane from animal waste and construct an anaerobic digester there. The 2014 Anaerobic Digester Feasibility Study indicated the Swine Farms collectively had the highest methane output; Miles Redden told me the Beef & Sheep farm is the highest manure-producing farcilty, though ionophore feeding of beef cattle decreases methane output. It may be worthwhile to determine which single facility has the highest methane output in 2019-2020.
Additionally, there are a few options in consideration for how to best use the biogas:
1. Burn it on-site in existing natural gas furnaces to meet facility heat demands. This could be used in conjunction with the deep direct-use (DDU) geothermal system that is being studied for the ACES Legacy corridor—the brine solution from the DDU system will bring the facility's hot water to ~110 degrees F and the biogas furnace could increase that temperature to 130 degrees. There would likely be a considerable excess of biogas, which could either be burned on-site to generate electricity for distribution to the local grid (which is less efficient than combined heat & power), transported to nearby facilities to burn in their furnaces, or...
2. Upgrade the biogas (all or only the excess from idea #1) to pipeline-quality methane and inject it into the pipeline for use at Abbott Power Plant. There is a supply pipeline that runs through the ACES corridor where this methane could be injected.
3. Use upgraded biogas for compressed natural gas (CNG) to power F&S vehicle fleets.
The 2014 Feasibility Study also discussed constructing a pressurized pipeline to deliver waste from multiple facilities to the site of the anaerobic digester. This may be worthwhile if the biogas is to be used on a larger scale i.e. at Abbott Power Plant or some combination of the previous ideas.
Life-cycle cost analysis of the above options should be studied to determine the most cost-effective and, more importantly, the lowest emissions option. If you can, please let me know which of these options for biogas production and use sound most feasible, or if better ideas come to mind.
Finally, we need the support and expertise of faculty and staff to advance this proposal. If you are interested in backing or contributing to this proposal, or you know someone else who may be, please let me know. Thank you for your time, and I look forward to hearing from you!
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Best,
David A. Rivera-Kohr
Undergraduate Student
University of Illinois @ Urbana-Champaign
College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Biochemistry
Dr. Rutilio Fratti's Lab
Jonah Messinger, President of the Illinois Solar Decathlon and co-chair of the Student Sustainability Leadership Council, provided this overview of clean energy markets to the iCAP Working Group.
David Rivera-Kohr shared this great news today:
ACES has decided to support the biogas initiative! This is a huge step in the right direction. I’ve made decent progress on the presentation (though I need more information before it’s complete) and deciding which options to write the recommendation for is an important future step. An anaerobic digester is best in terms of energy production and waste disposal, but it ultimately comes down to what the University will fund. The Zero Waste SWATeam is very supportive of this idea and if I can collect evidence that a digester alleviates the burden on agricultural land and water consumption, the Land & Water team will also be on board. Thank you all for your help thus far, let’s make this happen! Communication with our Associated Dean for Research Germàn Bollero and the College of ACES is supportive of this proposal. As it moves forward, we will need to work together to determine the level of involvement that ACES faculty/staff are willing and able to provide.
RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the October 2019 Buyer's Share amounts by hour, totaling 2,329.1 Megawatt hours. See attached file.
Using the BRC solar energy dashboard at https://smart.tigoenergy.com/p/itisolartestbed/system/charts, we collected the monthly data for the solar array. Because only a portion of the array is on the dashboard, we extrapolated the total energy production. The FY19 production was 21,007 kWh.
RailSplitter Wind Farm provided the September 2019 Buyer's Share amounts by hour, totaling 1,490.2 Megawatt hours. See attached file.
The Energy SWATeam's early October meeting involved discussions on the draft 2020 iCAP Objectives created by the SWATeam members.
Andy Stumpf provided the following response for eGEN010, "Yes. The summary will be compiled as part of a 'Living Labs' project proposed by the Illinois Water Resources Center."
See the iWG Assessment of eGen010 Geothermal Feasibility Study here.
See the SWATeam recommendation eGen010 Geothermal Feasibility Study here
I checked again with our market advisor for natural gas purchases, and they are not aware of anyone that produces biogas and injects it into the gas pipeline. They are going to do some additional checking and will follow back up if they find something.
The did note that we could purchase environmental assets (RECs) associated with renewable gas that is produced. They are going to provide an overview summary of what this market looks like and what these type of RECs would cost.
I also came across the attached website from DOE that I thought might interest you about renewable gas production.
https://afdc.energy.gov/fuels/natural_gas_renewable.html
This site also have a link to a BioFuels atlas which was interesting as well.
Mike Larson
Associate Director of Utilities Production, Facilities and Services
The Energy SWATeam's meeting in September involved discussions on 2018-2019 recommendations and 2020 iCAP objective ideas.
Construction of a new 54-acre, 12.1 megawatt (MWdc) Solar Farm is approved by the University of Illinois Board of Trustees as the sole member of Prairieland Energy, Inc. Referred to as “Solar Farm 2.0,” the new utility-scale array to be located north of Curtis Road, between First Street and U.S. Route 45, will produce approximately 20,000 megawatt-hours (MWh) annually, almost tripling the university’s existing on-site renewable energy generation. Solar Farm 2.0 will generate the equivalent electricity use of more than 2,000 average American homes.
Sol Systems, LLC, will design, build, operate, and maintain Solar Farm 2.0, for the duration of a 20-year contract which includes power purchase and land lease agreements, and an option to buy the system at the end of the term.
Morgan White and Joyce Mast discussed next steps for acheiving Net-Zero status for the ECE Building. Mike Marquissee is working on a draft MOU about using Solar Farm 2.0 Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs).
Joyce is seeking student input about what should go on the ECE Building interactive display. If you are interested in working with her on this, contact her at jmast@illinois.edu.
Julie Wurth with the News-Gazette, published an article updating the progress on the Solar Farm 2.0 project, which is expected to get Board of Trustees approvals later this month. Read the article at:
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