Thursday, July 25, 2002 

 

MOUNT WACHUSETT COMMUNITY COLLEGE CHOSEN FOR NATIONAL WOOD ENERGY DEMO PROJECT

 

(GARDNER)—Mount Wachusett Community College is one of only six U.S. sites—the only one on the East Coast and the only college—selected by the United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service to test the new bio-power system, the BioMax 15. The purpose of the demo project is to evaluate the feasibility of using small-scale modular biopower systems fueled by wood chips to generate electric and thermal energy.

The BioMax 15 is a transportable, fully automated and environmentally friendly biopower system that uses wood by-products to provide electricity and heat suitable for small structures such as schools and homes. It uses advanced downdraft gasification technology to convert the energy in wood to a clean, gaseous fuel suitable for use in generators, including automotive and industrial engines. Current BioMax prototypes can produce five to 15 kilowatts of electricity and up to 50 kilowatts of heat.

The college will use the BioMax 15 to generate power for its greenhouse while monitoring use of wood chips as a fuel source, the cost of production, and providing suggestions on how to modify and improve the system. “Not only will this give the college greenhouse a clean, environmentally friendly source of electricity,” said Mount Wachusett Community College President Daniel M. Asquino, “It also contributes to valuable research into how we can protect our forests by using forest thinnings and other wood by-products as fuel.”

According to the USDA Forest Service, the new technology is especially timely. “Recent forest fires in the West have again raised the issue that forests need to be thinned to reduce hazardous fuel loadings,” said a recent Forest Service press release. “Removing this material is costly, but developing value-added uses for this small diameter, thinned material can help offset these costs.”

“The college is already poised to begin this fall using a Biomass unit to cut the college’s energy cost in half,” said MWCC Executive Vice President Edward Terceiro. “The opportunity to test this smaller, portable system is another opportunity to contribute to the body of research on this innovative technology.” According to Terceiro, the college will use a little more than 1,000 tons of wood by-products to fuel the college’s new Biomass system and the BioMax 15. Terceiro and MWCC Forest and Wood Products Associate Director Robert Rizzo put together the proposal that ultimately won the USDA Forest Service selection for the site demo project. According to a letter from USDA Forest Service Program Manager Susan L. Levan-Green and National Bioenergy Center Group Manager Richard Bain, the college’s current biomass project was a deciding factor in their decision. “Your demonstrated enthusiasm and commitment to help showcase and educate others on small-scale modular bioenergy technologies were factors in locating the unit in our community,” they wrote.