Louisiana Parish Expands CNG Station in Circular Waste-to-Energy Pact with Progressive Waste

A Louisiana solid waste district has opened an expanded compressed natural gas (CNG) fueling facility at its landfill to fuel Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. trucks that collect residential trash in the area.

The district expanded the BioCNG facility in St. Landry Parish because of a fuel purchase agreement between the St. Landry Solid Waste Commission and the Vaughan, Ontario-based Progressive. Progressive purchased 10 new CNG waste trucks in 2015 to provide residential collection service in the parish, and it decided to use the biogas generated at the landfill rather than building its own fueling station, according to a news release.

Parish officials said the setup is the only one of its kind in Louisiana.

The waste collected by Progressive and disposed of at the parish landfill generates biogas that is converted into renewable natural gas to power the Progressive vehicles.

The vehicle fueling system also can support additional users in St. Landry Parish. It includes an additional BioCNG system and a remote CNG fueling station in Opelousas, which dispenses BioCNG via mobile transport.

BioCNG LLC, which partnered with the district to develop the original system, designed, installed and commissioned the new “primary-satellite” BioCNG station format, which is the first of its kind in the United States.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) awarded St. Landry Parish BioCNG Vehicle Fuel Project its Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) its 2012 project of the year award.

The project continues Progressive Waste’s aggressive embrace of CNG. In April the company launched a new CNG fleet in St. Louis, adding 25 CNG vehicles. It also has its own fueling station there. By the end of the year Progressive expects to operate 40 CNG trucks, which would comprise about 50 percent of its fleet.

With that move Progressive added nearly 250 natural gas vehicles to its waste and recycling fleet since it announced a corporate plan in May 2013 to convert to CNG. It expects to have as much as 55 percent of its fleet replaced by CNG vehicles annually in the United States and Canada. By 2019, it plans on having 18-20 percent of its fleet powered by natural gas.

Other hauler CNG moves include Waste Management Inc. in June launching a new fleet of 28 CNG trucks to serve the Ontario cities of Waterloo, Guelph and surrounding areas, at an investment of more than $13 million.

In April waste and recycling hauler Emterra Group and its partners announced plans to spend nearly $50 million for a new CNG station in Mississauga, Ontario, and a new CNG fleet to serve the greater Peel region, all near Toronto. Also that month, WCA Waste Corp. expanded its investment in CNG vehicle operations.