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NZCS chat recap: When the number on carbon emissions is less than zero

When the entire life cycle is considered and renewable natural gas is the fuel, it can measure out at net zero: Cummins Westport’s Donnell

This fireside chat recap is from FreightWaves’ Net-Zero Carbon Summit.

Fireside Chat Topic: How Renewable Natural Gas Can Create Net Negative Zero Carbon Emissions

Details: Technologies can be low-carbon. But how can a technology have a carbon footprint less than zero? Hugh Donnell of Cummins Westport, which manufactures natural gas engines, discusses the technological path to a negative number. 

Speaker: Hugh Donnell, business growth and development leader, Cummins Westport


Bio: Hugh Donnell is responsible for OEM, national account and business development for the Renewable Natural Gas Engine project with the Cummins Westport Joint Venture. He has more than 32 years of experience in the commercial on-highway transportation industry, including 27 years at Cummins Inc. His roles have included new product development, business strategy, product introduction, business growth and product sales. Donnell also has been a national account executive, serving customers operating in the U.S. and globally.

Key quotes from Donnell:

“Renewable natural gas is not a fossil fuel. It can come from an anaerobic digester on a farm or it could be from landfills.”

“The question is what is deployable when, and is there a path to those [electrification] technologies through renewable natural gas. We believe there is for many applications.”


“If you look at the full life cycle of the fuel, you need to look at start to finish and what it takes for the output of the technology.”

“What will accelerate the adoption of renewable natural gas is a carbon tax.”

John Kingston

John has an almost 40-year career covering commodities, most of the time at S&P Global Platts. He created the Dated Brent benchmark, now the world’s most important crude oil marker. He was Director of Oil, Director of News, the editor in chief of Platts Oilgram News and the “talking head” for Platts on numerous media outlets, including CNBC, Fox Business and Canada’s BNN. He covered metals before joining Platts and then spent a year running Platts’ metals business as well. He was awarded the International Association of Energy Economics Award for Excellence in Written Journalism in 2015. In 2010, he won two Corporate Achievement Awards from McGraw-Hill, an extremely rare accomplishment, one for steering coverage of the BP Deepwater Horizon disaster and the other for the launch of a public affairs television show, Platts Energy Week.