The Green University Lights the Gasifier

Thursday, November 25, 2010 09:33 AM

UNBC President Dr. George Iwama uses a tiger torch to ignite the hog fuel in the gasifier

Prince George, B.C. - UNBC has taken another step towards heating the core campus buildings with bio-energy.

With torch in hand, UNBC President George Iwama ignited the sawmill residue in the gasifier this morning to start the system. Gasification works by subjecting the biomass to high temperatures and only about 20% of the oxygen required for full combustion. This serves to convert the wood to a clean-burning synthetic gas that will then be combusted to heat water, which is piped around the campus to heat the buildings.

The system is still a few months from being fully operational.

The bioenergy building is being constructed by IDL Projects of PG, with equipment provided by Vancouver-based Nexterra. The fuel is being provided by Lakeland Mills of Prince George.

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Posted on Thursday, November 25, 2010 09:33 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: He spoke on November 25 2010 10:45 AM

Ka boom

Posted by: culturevulture on November 25 2010 11:10 AM

Should be a way of harnessing all the hot air coming out of City Hall. And what about all the BS the Liberals been shoving at us for the past 8 years?

Posted by: northman on November 25 2010 11:10 AM

"Hey watch this.."

Posted by: gus on November 25 2010 11:12 AM

I believe this is a research project.

I would like to know more about what they are doing to study the direct emissions from the flue(s) to compare those with the operational design.

Posted by: northman on November 25 2010 11:18 AM

Culturevulture..

There is a way.. You take all the over rated managers and politcians.. Put them in a confined space then dump a load of the publics money in there.. The fighting and unstable personalitys will create a nuclear reaction and we should be able to scratch energy off the list for at least 1000 years.

Posted by: northman on November 25 2010 11:24 AM

Gus..

The emissions from wood gas are lower than conventional wood fired boilers and heaters because the smoke and other particulate is gassifed and burned. Wood gassification has been around for a long time..This wood gassification plant is still alot cleaner than the conventional konus systems the mills use to burn waste to heat their kilns.

Lots of intersting stuff on youtube where people have made their own wood gassifers to run vehicles and in general wood gas heaters..

Posted by: metalman on November 25 2010 1:21 PM

You nabbed my initial thoughts for a comment, culturevulture.
Yeah, this gasification is supposed to be cleaner in the emissions dept, but I , like Gus, would like to see some more information on that.
metalman.

Posted by: acrider54 on November 25 2010 5:25 PM

Good one culturevulture!

Posted by: detoe43 on November 25 2010 7:22 PM

Hahaha Northman, you forgot to add "Hold my beer & watch this..."

Posted by: gamblor on November 26 2010 10:43 AM

Another wood-fired hydronic heating system in PG. Another violation of PG's clean air bylaw. Another example of "do as we say not as we do".

Posted by: univ on November 26 2010 9:14 PM

There should be a cost/benefiet report on this system with items for implementing, operating and maintaining it and pollution numbers. I saw a report on a new green cooling system in Toronto which reduced the cost of cooling buildings with justified infrastructure, operating and maintanance costs, compared to other alternatives.