The system at UBC has cut carbon emissions comparable to taking 1,000 cars off the road.
Heat and power system at UBC is fuelled by wood waste from tree trimmings and wood chips
A Community Heat and Power (CHP) System is now supplying clean, renewable energy to the University of British Columbia's power grid.
It's the first demonstration of its kind in North America of a community-scale heat and power system fuelled by biomass, in this case energy from wood waste (tree trimmings and wood chips) from local sources.
Nexterra uses gasification to convert waste biomass to a clean-burning synthesis gas, or "syngas," as an alternative to fossil fuels. GE approached Nexterra hoping to find a biomass gasification system that could power its Jenbacher internal combustion engine. But syngas tended to choke the engine with tar.
So GE and Nexterra collaborated in developing a gas cleanup technology, which set the stage for the University of British Columbia facility, called the Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility (BRDF).
"We're able to make community-scale plants cost-effective and clean enough to be in communities. It opens up all sorts of potential avenues because the gas we're producing is clean enough to serve as a feedstock for higher-value fuels and chemicals. It's potentially a gateway to renewable fuels, like hydrogen," says Mike Scott, president and CEO of Nexterra.
Key facts about the project:
- Produces 2 megawatts of electricity for UBC, enough to power 1,500 homes.
- Produces 3 megawatts of thermal energy, displacing up to 12 per cent of UBC’s natural gas consumption.
- Reduces UBC’s greenhouse gas emissions by at least 5,000 tonnes a year, equivalent to removing 1,000 cars from the roads (the Vancouver campus has a goal of reducing emissions by 67 per cent by 2020).
- Creates a facility in which to research, develop and evaluate bioenergy and other clean energies, processes and technologies.
"Until this project, fueling an internal combustion engine with biomass-derived synthesis gas had only been realized at a very small scale. The BRDF demonstrates the practicality of this technology and its applicability locally, nationally and globally," says Brent Sauder, Director of Strategic Partnerships at UBC.
"Equally important is that the facility provides an operational foundation for research and learning that will mature the technology."
For more innovation insights, visit www.gereports.ca
This content was produced by The Globe and Mail's advertising department, in consultation with GE. The Globe's editorial department was not involved in its creation.