Canada's largest natural gas distribution company Enbridge Gas Distribution Inc., a subsidiary of Enbridge Inc., and the city of Toronto, Canada's largest city and the fourth largest in North America have announced a joint project to construct the City's first renewable natural gas (RNG) facility, located at the Dufferin Organics Processing Facility (DOPF). Together, Enbridge Gas Distribution and the City of Toronto will build a plant to turn the City's organic waste into renewable energy.
We all agree that we must have cleaner or lower carbon energy options to heat our homes and move our vehicles. While traditional natural gas is the cleanest-burning conventional fuel, RNG is the first step in ‘greening’ the natural gas system. I commend Mayor Tory and the City of Toronto for their vision and commitment and we look forward to additional opportunities to partner with and support the City, said Cynthia Hansen, Executive Vice President, Utilities and Power Operations, Enbridge Inc.
Expected to be complete in 2019, the project supports the City’s vision of using Toronto’s organic waste to offset greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. As an added benefit, the newly created carbon-neutral, renewable natural gas (RNG) will be injected into the natural gas distribution system to fuel the very trucks that picked up the Green Bin waste. Enbridge and the City of Toronto estimate that more than 5 million m3 of RNG could be produced each year at this facility, enough to fuel 132 garbage trucks, 90 percent of the City’s fleet.
This project represents a path to low-carbon fuel for the City and will play an important role in helping us reach our goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80 per cent by 2050. The City remains committed to its climate change action goals and to creating a more sustainable Toronto. By working with Enbridge we are able to move positive projects like this forward to the benefit of our residents and the environment, said Mayor John Tory.
The Dufferin Organics Processing Facility in Toronto includes a Green Bin Processing Facility. This facility was designed to process 25 000 tonnes of organic materials from Toronto’s Green Bin Program. The organic material that is produced at this facility is sent for further refinement into finished compost. The facility received approval to increase the processing capacity to a total of 55 000 tonnes per year. Construction began in 2016 and on schedule to be completed by late December 2018.
