The Vehicle-as-a-Service program includes the vehicle chassis, refuse body and protection plan.

Mack Trucks, a truck manufacturer based in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Mack Financial Services recently launched a Vehicle-as-a-Service (VaaS) program to help simplify the purchase process and assist customers to manage expenses associated with acquiring the Mack LR Electric battery electric vehicle (BEV).

VaaS includes the vehicle chassis, the refuse body, applicable taxes and a vehicle protection plan, the Mack Ultra Service Agreement, for the Mack LR Electric refuse model, the manufacturer’s first fully electric Class 8 vehicle.

Mack says qualified customers also have the option to bundle a charger and associated installation costs into a single invoice. VaaS is offered as a five-year lease with single monthly payments and the option to renew.

“The Mack Vehicle-as-a-Service program is designed to address any customer hesitations in adopting electromobility by offering zero upfront costs,” says George Fotopoulos, Mack vice president of the e-mobility business unit. “Mack took this approach because we believe in BEV technology, we stand behind our electric products, and we want to accelerate industry adoption of this technology.”

The Mack LR Electric features twin electric motors that offer 448 continuous horsepower and 4,051 pounds per foot of peak output torque from zero revolutions per minute. The vehicle is offered with a two-speed Mack Powershift transmission, Mack mRIDE suspension and Mack’s proprietary S462R 46,000-pound rear axles.

Four nickel manganese cobalt oxide lithium-ion batteries, charged through a 150kW, SAE J1772-compliant charging system, provide power to the vehicle. 

The LR Electric model may be fitted with equipment bodies from several manufacturers, allowing the truck to be tailored to each customer’s needs. Customers can choose from the same driver/passenger side driving configurations, seating choices and door options as those offered on the diesel-powered LR model.

Shredder producer adds Brent Moncrief and Michelle Wilshire in sales and operations roles.

The Lindner Recyclingtech America business unit of Austria-based Lindner-Recyclingtech GmbH has added Brent Moncrief as a national sales and corporate account manager and Michelle Wilshire as operations manager.

Moncrief has been assigned as the national sales and corporate account manager focused on the West Coast of the United States. He joins Lindner after a long career in the printing industry, where he managed key corporate accounts “to best align his company’s services with clients,” according to Executive Director Christopher Howard of Statesville, North Carolina-based Lindner Recyclingtech America (LRA).

Howard says Moncrief “brings more than 35 years of sales, marketing and executive leadership to his new role as strategic accounts manager. Brent will be focusing his efforts on consulting with clients on Lindner’s comprehensive portfolio of industrial shredding solutions to large, multi-location waste handling and processing sites while also supporting Lindner’s participation with industry associations and events.”

Moncrief comments, “I am genuinely excited to join the already strong LRA team. This, combined with great existing customers, many prospects and world-class products, made this decision a very easy one to make.”

Wilshire has taken on the role of operations manager for LRA. She previously worked with a mid-sized family-owned business in the Hickory, North Carolina, region, Howard says.

He says at LRA, Wilshire will be responsible for “all of the coordination with sales, service, accounting and the factory to ensure that customer projects flow smoothly throughout the entire process while also looking to continuously improve LRA’s reporting and operations as it continues its strong growth path going forward.”  Howard continues, “Michelle’s strong background in working in a mid-sized business and managing its operations makes her a perfect fit with the Lindner US team.”

The two companies will bring cost-effective technology to North America.

Clean Methane Systems LLC (CMS), a biogas consultant based in Tualatin, Oregon, and Ammongas A/S, a biogas service provider based in Glostrup, Denmark, have partnered to bring amine technology to North American renewable natural gas (RNG) customers.

According to a news release from Ammongas, the technology simplifies biogas upgrading by minimizing the steps required to prepare and inject renewable natural gas into the grid. Amine technology also reduces the operational cost of the system in the novel way it manages hydrogen sulfide and other contaminants in the gas stream.

"This technology simplifies the gas upgrading equation and significantly reduces the costs of removing contaminants," says Tim Robinson, president of Clean Methane Systems. "We are committed to efficiently recovering methane for beneficial use in North America. We view the Ammongas upgrading technology as the next step forward in accomplishing that objective. The overall impact to the industry and the environment looks very promising."

Ammongas says collaborating with CMS will enable it efficiently and effectively enter and serve a large, new market.

"The result should be best-in-class solutions supported locally for serious customers in the U.S., Mexico and Canada,” says Alexander Ryhl, head of sales for Ammongas.

The unit in Rockford, Illinois, will produce biomethane using material from a solid waste treatment plant, owned and operated by Waste Connections Inc.

Paris-based Air Liquide, a supplier of industrial gases, has announced the construction of what it calls its largest biomethane production unit in the world. The company says the facility, being built in the U.S., will bring the worldwide biomethane production capacity of the group to 1.8 Terawatt-hours (TWh).

According to a news release from Air Liquide, the production unit is being built in Rockford, Illinois, and will produce biomethane from a solid waste treatment plant’s biogas. That plant is owned and operated by Waste Connections Inc., Vaughan, Ontario. The unit will have a production capacity of 380 gigawatt hours per year, which Air Liquide says represents the largest production capacity plant for the group. It will be operational by the end of 2023. 

“Biomethane, like hydrogen and CO2-capture technologies, has a prominent place in the portfolio of solutions developed by Air Liquide to fight global warming and preserve the environment,” says Émilie Mouren-Renouard, head of Air Liquide’s innovation, digital and IT, intellectual property and global markets and technologies world business unit. “The announcement of the construction of our largest biomethane production unit in the world illustrates Air Liquide’s determination to accompany its customers in the industrial and transportation sectors throughout the energy transition but also to actively contribute to the emergence of a low-carbon society.”

Another biomethane production unit for another landfill is being built in Delavan, Wisconsin, and will be operational at the beginning of Q2 2022.

For these two projects, Air Liquide says it will use, in addition to its membrane technology, a complementary technology developed by Waga Energy, a company specialized in the valorization of biogas from landfill sites in Meylan, France.

Globally, Air Liquide now has 21 biomethane operational production units in the world for a yearly production capacity of about 1.4 TWh. After the commissioning of the Rockford and Delavan plants, the Group’s biomethane production capacity will reach 1.8 TWh per year.

The company says it was awarded the contract for the largest of three zones in the county.

FCC Environmental Services (FCC), Houston, has started its new contract for residential and commercial solid waste collection in Hillsborough County, Florida, Jan. 31. FCC received the largest of three zones in Hillsborough County for an initial contract term of eight years and eight months with a potential extension of an additional four years.

The two other companies that also received hauling contracts were Republic Services of Florida and Waste Management of Tampa, according to the county.

Including the potential extension, FCC says the contract is work about $280 million. When commercial collection is factored in, the company says the contract could increase by an additional $100 million.

To service the 110,000 homes plus the commercial accounts, FCC says it has increased its fleet by 96 compressed natural gas (CNG) trucks and added 120 employees. FCC also has invested in a new yard that includes a CNG station, a fully equipped maintenance building for the CNG truck and several administrative and breakroom buildings for the workers.

The contract was awarded at the beginning of June 2021.