Prince George, B.C. – Purden Lake and Ski Resorts Ltd, is working with the College of New Caledonia to  go “green” when it comes to electricity production.

Right now, the resort relies on diesel fired generators for its power needs. CNC instructor Brian Poppleton has been looking at  alternative energy sources and may have an  idea that will work. 

Poppleton teaches Power Engineering at CNC’s School of Trades and Technologies and  his   4^th Class Power engineering students  will be  helping to find  a way to use wood and other dry organic materials  to  create a gas mixture that can be  used  instead of diesel to operate an internal combustion engine.

Biomass is already used to produce steam and  force that steam through turbines to create electricity. That kind of  process requires  highly skilled power engineers to run the boiler.  Poppleton  is exploring generating combustible gas from wood and using the gas directly in an internal combustion engine to produce electricity, a process that  doesn’t require special training  to operate.

“This has been a personal interest of mine” says Poppleton.  He is busy building the equipment himself and has assembled a group to work with him. “The actual furnace needs to be custom built using a team of fabricators. We expect 2,000 to 3,000 watts will be produced. That is enough to supply power needs for two households as long as it is running.” An average house uses about 1,500 watts per hour every day.