The City of Grand Junction, Colorado, has celebrated the official completion of a project that has been many years in the making and will be the first of its kind in the United States. The BioCNG Project will carry biogas that is converted to compressed natural gas (CNG or biomethane) from the Persigo Wastewater Treatment Plant via an underground pipeline to the City’s Municipal Services Campus where it will be used to fuel the City’s fleet of CNG vehicles and County CNG Grand Valley Transit busses.
The project was the recipient of a generous grant of $500,000 from the Colorado Department of Local Affairs which was instrumental in moving it forward.
The design and installation of the project was performed by BioCNG,LLC a contractor out of Madison, WI that specializes in biogas pipeline projects.
The early stages of this project date back to 2003 when the concept of capturing the biomethane gas that was being flared off at Persigo and putting it to practical use was first discussed. Due to the novelty and complexity of the project, significant planning and engineering has been necessary to bring the project to fruition.
The project will allow the City and County to fuel CNG vehicles at a reduced per-gallon rate. As a result of the decreased cost of fueling the fleet, a project payoff is estimated to be realized in approximately eight years. The methane bio-gas produced at Persigo when converted to CNG is the equivalent of 196,000 gallons of gasoline with an approximate 3 million pound reduction of CO2 emissions released in a year.
The ceremony will culminate with the toppling of the old flare to mark the transition to the new system.
(Source: City of Grand Junction)
