Natural Gas Vehicles for America (NGVAmerica) and Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas (RNG Coalition) announced that 64% of all on-road fuel used in natural gas vehicles in calendar year 2021 was renewable natural gas. Biomethane can produce carbon-negative results when fueling vehicles like short- and long-haul trucks, transit buses, and refuse and recycling collection vehicles.
California Air Resources Board data confirms that the annual average carbon intensity (CI) value of California’s bio-CNG vehicle fuel portfolio in its Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) program was carbon negative and below zero at -44.41 gCO2e/MJ for calendar year 2021.
Renewable natural gas use as a transportation fuel grew 13% over 2020 volumes, up 234 percent from 2017 levels. NGVAmerica and RNG Coalition report that in 2021 a total of 610 million gallons (GGE) of natural gas were used as motor fuel. Of that, 390 million gallons (GGE) were from renewable sources.
“Transitioning to renewable natural gas-fueled vehicles is the most affordable and immediate climate positive change a fleet can make today,” said Dan Gage, President of NGVAmerica. “With current savings of up to $2.60/gallon or more over diesel, fleets can slash annual fueling costs while virtually eliminating NOx and particulate matter emissions and decarbonizing their freighting operations.”
“Renewable Natural Gas supply is growing,” said Johannes Escudero, Founder & CEO of Coalition for Renewable Natural Gas. “With 250 facilities transforming waste into fuel, and another 237 facilities on the way, we are increasingly able to affordably offer consumers the opportunity to decarbonize with renewable natural gas – the cleanest of any fuel available today.”
Biomethane use as a motor fuel in 2021 displaced 3.8 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). Put into perspective, its use last year: lowered greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to removing the GHG from over 9.4 billion miles driven by the average passenger car; eliminated CO2 emissions, equivalent to removing CO2 emissions from more than 427 million gallons of gasoline consumed; and sequestered carbon, equal to growing close to 63 million tree seedlings for 10 years, or 4.5 million acres of U.S. forests for one year.