The College has entered into agreement with Community Power Corporation of Littleton Colorado to build and install a 50 kWe downdraft gasifier utilizing wood chips as the feedstock.
Partners in this $1,2000,000 research and development project include Congressman John Olver of Massachusetts and the US Department of Energy, Golden Field Office.
It is anticipated that this project will be installed in August 2006 and will provide 50 – 75 kW of electricity and approximately 420,000 Btu’s of thermal energy per hour. During the winter months the thermal energy will be added to the College’s existing biomass hydronic heating system and in the summer the thermal energy will power a twenty-ton adsorption chiller to provide air conditioning.
A 75 kW gasifier would result in displacing 682.65 tons of CO2 per year. This amount of electricity would service 44 homes/year with an assumed annual capacity factor of 73%.