據(jù)油氣新聞6月22日消息稱，想想象一下，如果你想要一種不受時(shí)間和天氣限制的可再生能源。一種可再生能源，其表面的潛力剛剛被挖掘出來(lái)。也也許在當(dāng)今的政治環(huán)境中，最重要的是，可再生能源的來(lái)源不依賴于敵對(duì)國(guó)家主導(dǎo)的供應(yīng)鏈作為其原料來(lái)源，而是依賴于美國(guó)的家庭農(nóng)場(chǎng)。

　　這正是先鋒可再生能源公司及其新任首席執(zhí)行官Joel Gay從事的業(yè)務(wù)。該公司專注于將糞便和食物垃圾轉(zhuǎn)化為可再生天然氣(RNG)。RNG生產(chǎn)后剩下的部分會(huì)被轉(zhuǎn)化為有機(jī)肥料，將產(chǎn)生的糞便和食物垃圾中的營(yíng)養(yǎng)物質(zhì)返回土壤進(jìn)行再次循環(huán)利用，并將成噸的廢物轉(zhuǎn)移到垃圾填埋場(chǎng)或焚化爐。

　　RNG是第一個(gè)碳負(fù)能量來(lái)源，因?yàn)樗怯捎袡C(jī)物產(chǎn)生的，否則會(huì)被釋放為強(qiáng)大的溫室氣體。因此，先鋒公司正在幫助星巴克和聯(lián)合利華等公司實(shí)現(xiàn)“到2050年實(shí)現(xiàn)凈零排放”的承諾。這一承諾在主要能源和消費(fèi)品公司中已成為一種時(shí)尚。

　　對(duì)每個(gè)人來(lái)說(shuō)，好消息是這個(gè)行業(yè)在很大程度上具有可擴(kuò)展性。先鋒公司由兩位企業(yè)家于2014年創(chuàng)立的，已經(jīng)在美國(guó)50個(gè)州中的17個(gè)州有農(nóng)場(chǎng)在開(kāi)發(fā)中，并且正在著手一項(xiàng)大規(guī)模擴(kuò)張的計(jì)劃。為了管理公司的擴(kuò)張，公司剛剛宣布招聘新的首席執(zhí)行官Joel Gay。

　　先鋒公司已經(jīng)是全國(guó)厭氧消化生產(chǎn) RNG 的最大企業(yè)之一，將在這一增長(zhǎng)中發(fā)揮主導(dǎo)作用。Gay表示：“就增長(zhǎng)潛力而言，它是相對(duì)無(wú)限的。”

　　他說(shuō):“業(yè)務(wù)分為有機(jī)和農(nóng)業(yè)兩大類。在有機(jī)方面，我們結(jié)合了糞便和有機(jī)可回收材料——這是不合格的食品，變質(zhì)的食品，有機(jī)液體或有機(jī)固體。我們將所有這些混合成均勻的漿液，然后送入我們的厭氧消化池。因此，在有機(jī)方面，我們最終得到大概是兩種肥料和八種有機(jī)材料的結(jié)合。”

　　Gay 說(shuō)，目前的商業(yè)模式是針對(duì)大型城市中心，這些中心有各種有機(jī)材料的來(lái)源——餐館、雜貨店等——可以聚集成足夠大的數(shù)量，以創(chuàng)造規(guī)模經(jīng)濟(jì)。

　　朱佳妮 摘譯自 油氣新聞

　　原文如下：

　　Renewable Natural Gas Set For Disruptive Growth

　　Imagine if you will a renewable source of energy without constraints of time of day or weather. A renewable source of energy whose surface of potential is just now being scratched. Perhaps most importantly in today’s political environment, a source of renewable energy that does not rely on supply chains dominated by adversarial nations as the source of its feedstock, but America’s family farms instead.

　　That is the line of business in which Vanguard Renewables and its new CEO, Joel Gay, are engaged. It is a business focused on converting manure and food waste into renewable natural gas (RNG). What remains following the production of RNG is then turned into organic fertilizer, returning the nutrients from the manure and food waste produced back to the soil to be recycled again and diverting tons of waste that would have otherwise gone into landfills or incinerators.

　　RNG is the first carbon-negative energy source since it is produced from organic matter that would otherwise be released as a powerful greenhouse gas. As a result, Vanguard is helping companies like Starbucks and Unilever meet their “net-zero by 2050” pledges that have become a fad among major energy and consumer goods companies.

　　The positive news for everyone is that this industry is scalable in a major way. Vanguard, which was founded in 2014 by a pair of entrepreneurs, already has farms in development in 17 of the 50 U.S. states and is embarking on a plan for major expansion. To manage that expansion the company just announced the hiring of a new Chief Executive Officer, Joel Gay.

　　Vanguard, already one of the biggest players in the production of RNG by anaerobic digestion nationally, stands to play the leading role in that growth. “In terms of the growth potential, it is relatively unlimited,” Gay said.

　　“The business is bifurcated between organic and Ag. On the organic side, we are combining both manure and organic recyclable material – this is off-spec food, spoiled food, organic liquids or organic solids. We combine all of those into a homogenous slurry, which is then fed to our anaerobic digesters. So, on the organic side, we end up with roughly 2 parts manure combined with 8 parts organic materials.”

　　Gay said that currently the business model is to target big urban centers with a variety of sources for this organic material – restaurants, grocery stores, etc. – that can be aggregated into large enough volumes to create economies of scale.