Surrey's 42-truck waste removal fleet already runs on compressed natural gas, but now the city is proceeding with plans to power them from its own waste-generated methane.
That would make Surrey one of the pioneering cities in North America, according to Rob Costanzo, the city engineering department's deputy manager of operations.
The city's biofuel and district heating initiatives earned it a spot on the winner's podium at the 2013 Community Energy Builder Awards last Wednesday night.
It won the local government category of the awards, which were issued by Quality Urban Energy Systems of Tomorrow (QUEST), a national non-profit organization that recognizes leadership and innovation in advancing smart energy communities in Canada.
Brent Gilmour, QUEST's executive director, said from the sidelines of the organization's conference and trade show in Markham, Ontario, that Surrey is a Canadian leader in the advancement of clean energy systems.
He said that's largely due to the endeavours of Surrey Mayor Dianne Watts, who values the importance of becoming an energy-efficient community.
Surrey's new city hall will incorporate a district energy system based on an underground geo-exchange field, which uses heat pumps to extract the energy stored in the ground.
The city is also planning to build one of Canada's largest biofuel facilities to turn waste into biofuel to run its municipal fleet.
"It's one of the key ways municipalities have of addressing the emissions associated with transportation." Gilmour said. "That's a challenge for every municipality in Canada and right across North America."
Gilmour added that the City of Halifax has also recently completed a study on how to convert all its diesel garbage trucks to biofuels.
Costanzo said there's been interest from 11 suppliers of the biofuel technology. That will be reduced to a short list of three by December when the companies will be asked to submit formal bids to build and run the facility.
The proposed $68 million organic waste biofuel plant will take all of the city's curbside organic waste material – kitchen and yard waste – while the private-sector partner will also be required to deliver material to the facility from the industrial, commercial and institutional sector.
Costanzo said that in the year the city has been running its Rethink Waste Collection Program, Surrey has reduced its garbage tonnage by more than 40%.
"The total amount of organic waste that we've generated in that 12-month period is about 57,000 metric tonnes of material … far more than we had originally predicted that we would be able to divert prior to the initiation of our Rethink program."
The methane biogas that's produced will be used to fuel the city's waste collection trucks, which currently use conventional compressed natural gas (CNG) purchased from Fortis BC Inc. for about $0.45 a diesel litre equivalent.
The biogas will cost more – between $0.70 and $0.75 a litre equivalent – but significantly less than diesel, which sells for around $1.40.
The city said replacing one diesel truck with a CNG one is equivalent to taking 475 cars off the road each year.
"The biggest benefit is that the gas that we'll be producing is going to be 100% renewable, given that it comes from food waste and yard waste, material that's been on the planet for a relatively short period of time," said Costanzo.
The excess biogas will be put on the grid or sold by the city.
The plant, which will be located next to the transfer facility in Port Kells, won't cost taxpayers anything to build, because it's a public-private partnership.
The city had presented its business case for the facility to the P3 Canada Fund in 2011.
It was approved in 2012, and the federal government will cover 25% of the capital costs, which will be passed on to the private partner. •
