Methane

Methane (CH₄) is a chemical compound with one atom of carbon and four atoms of hydrogen.  It is the simplest alkane and is the main constituent of natural gas.  The abundance of methane makes it an attractive fuel, although capturing and storing can pose challenges.  Naturally occurring methane is found both below ground and under the floor of the ocean.  Essentially, there are two types of methane:  methane from natural gas and methane from renewable natural gas. RNG receives very low Carbon Index (CI) number from Life Cycle Analyses (LCA). In fact, some of the lowest CI numbers come from methane extracted from a landfill. They are negative!

A methane expert is one with experience in natural gas processing used by companies that separate and purify natural gas before it goes into the pipelines. Renewable natural gas is quite often very contaminated compared to fossil based natural gas, so strong processing skills and experience in things like amine treatment, carbon filtration, pumps, and heat exchangers is useful.  Potential clients might be municipal governments seeking to sell gases from their landfills, start-up companies seeking to partner with landfill owners, dairy and cattle processors, and municipal owned wastewater treatment (POTW or Public Owned Treatment Works). Today, many POTW recover methane and use it to power diesels for pumps and heat water.

The methane market is quite fragmented market as there are literally thousands of cities, towns, counties with POTW and landfill sites. Locations are a key factor as pipeline owners want large volumes of RNG but to collect this volume, process it and put it into a natural gas pipeline, can be quite challenging.

Large renewable energy and biochemical consulting firms like Lee Enterprises Consulting will have methane experts in their wide range of services in other things like biofuels, biochemicals, biotechnologies, biomaterials, synthetic biology commercialization, feedstocks, and hemp/cannabis.  These companies should have business and financial services like due diligence, feedstock availability, grants and loans and bio market research.  The company also offers technical and engineering related services like techno economic analysis, environmental evaluations, feasibility studies, risk analysis and expert witness engagements.   They might also have strategic partnerships in place to assist clients with insurance, legal, accounting, plant fabrication, feedstock procurement.  

With over 150 experts worldwide, Lee Enterprises Consulting has experts in many specific clean and renewable areas, including anaerobic digestion, fermentation, biomass, conversion technologies for things like tires and railroad ties, organic synthesis, fuel additives, ethanol gas, biodiesel fuel including algae biofuels, solid state and industrial fermentation, green energy grants, ag biotech, agricultural waste, alcohol fuels, alternative proteins and animal-free products, sustainable foods, beverage fermentation, biocatalysis, biodiesel conversion, biogas production, biomass power, carbon intensity, co2 utilization, combined heat & power, Fischer-Tropsch technology, food waste, hydrothermal carbonization, industrial enzymes, landfill management, microbial fermentation, organic synthesis, plastic pyrolysis, plastic recycling, plastic waste, pyrolysis oil, reactor design, renewable identification number, the Renewable Fuel Standard (rfs2), solid recovered fuels, torrefaction and torrefied biomass, waste to energy, and waste-to-hydrogen.   This is a multidisciplinary group of green energy consultants that is a virtual “one stop shop” for any client need and handles projects of all types and sizes.

Look at our experts and the services we provide.  Most of our experts are also available to advise and serve as expert witnesses in bioeconomy litigation matters.  For the larger projects, we specialize in putting together full service, interdisciplinary teams with one point of contact.  See video about LEC here.  Call us at 1+ (501) 833-8511 or email us for more information.