New wells, pipes and collectors to be added to the Vancouver landfill in Delta to capture and refine methane gas will replace conventional natural gas with a carbon-neutral alternative, B.C. Environment Minister George Heyman said Monday.
The province is providing matching funds of $4.28 million from its CleanBC Industry Fund to expand the existing methane capture program at the landfill next to Burns Bog, where an estimated 73 per cent of gas is already captured and processed by FortisBC. All natural gas is primarily methane, but captured landfill gas is considered carbon-neutral, unlike gas from fields in B.C.’s northeast that is extracted mainly from deep shale formations.
The Vancouver landfill project is part of a round of funding for 22 projects around the province, to move toward B.C.’s greenhouse gas reduction targets. FortisBC, the province’s gas provider that buys the fuel.
“The Vancouver landfill project is our largest renewable natural gas project to date and a key part of our 30BY30 plan to reduce customers’ greenhouse gas emission by 30% by 2030,” Joe Mazza, vice-president of energy supply and resource development at FortisBC, said Oct. 18.
The CleanBC Industry Fund uses carbon tax revenue paid by large emitters to fund projects that reduce emissions in mining, pulp and paper, cement, agriculture and oil and gas production.
Other projects funded through the program include electric haul trucks at Brucejack Gold Mine, Highland Valley Copper and Copper Mountain Mine at Princeton, as well as carbon dioxide capture and processing for use in greenhouses at Village Farms Canada in Delta.
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