UNBC Biomass Gasification System to Reduce Carbon Footprint

February 2010

Let the chips fall where they may? Not in the case of wood chips at the University of Northern British Columbia (UNBC).

UNBC’s Prince George campus is a beehive of activity these days as the late-2010 completion date nears for the installation of a biomass gasification system developed by Vancouver-based Nexterra Systems Corp.

The system will convert locally sourced wood residue — such as bark, branches, sawdust and wood chips — into clean-burning synthetic gas, or syngas. This resource can then be used like natural gas to generate heat and power.

The renewable energy potential of this technology was identified several years ago by Natural Resources Canada (NRCan), through which the federal government funded pilot-scale and early commercial demonstrations of Nexterra’s biomass gasification systems in thermal energy generation applications.

In Prince George, wood residue will be used to displace up to 85 percent of the natural gas currently required to heat the UNBC campus. This approach will have significant results. On an annual basis, UNBC expects the new system to save $600,000 to $800,000; lower its fossil fuel consumption by 80,000 gigajoules, equivalent to the natural gas required to heat more than 700 homes in B.C.; and reduce the university’s carbon footprint by approximately 3,500 tonnes annually, equivalent to taking 1,000 cars off the road.

And as well as heating the campus, the innovative biomass gasification system will anchor UNBC’s new Northern Bioenergy Innovation Centre.

For these reasons, the bioenergy program is an important component of the university’s commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and implement renewable energy technologies on the Prince George campus.

“It’s one way that we’re being responsive to a community and region that very much sees bioenergy as part of its future,” says Dr. George Iwama, UNBC president.

The project is part of the university’s wider activities in working with community, government, corporate and other educational partners to make Prince George and Northern B.C. a centre for engineering, renewable energy, forest product research and community installations. These activities have two main areas of focus:

• sustainable bioenergy, with opportunities for interdisciplinary research on the social, economic, political, health and technological aspects of bioenergy, together with the training of specialized technologists; and
• forest product diversification, with research and teaching on resource policy and economics, global markets and trade, emerging markets, product innovation and business development.

The broad-based partnerships in these areas are actively supported by all involved. “We look forward to working with UNBC, the province of British Columbia and the federal government to establish UNBC as a northern hub of bioenergy innovation, economic development and job creation,” says Jonathan Rhone, Nexterra’s president.

And by working together with companies like Nexterra, NRCan is helping Canada reach its clean energy goals.

The UNBC biomass gasification system is part of a $14.8-million bioenergy program supported by the governments of Canada and British Columbia through the Knowledge Infrastructure Program.