Nexterra sells biomass gasification system to Oak Ridge Lab
The U.S. Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory will use a biomass gasification system from Vancouver-based Nexterra Energy Corp. to save on energy costs and reduce its carbon footprint. The system is being purchased by Johnson Controls Inc., which has been given an $89 million contract with Oak Ridge to deploy a number of building management and energy-conservation measures.
According to a Nexterra release, the gasification system “will replace ORNL’s existing natural gas steam plant by converting locally sourced woody biomass into clean burning syngas. The syngas will produce 60,000 lbs/hr of saturated steam to displace 75 MMBtu/hr of fossil fuel traditionally used to heat the campus.” Once the system is operational, it is expected to reduce fossil-fuel consumption on the campus by 80 per cent, removing about 20,000 tons per year of greenhouse-gas emissions — equivalent to taking 5,000 cars off the road.
I’ve heard a lot of positive feedback about the Nexterra system from a variety of people in the industry. Selling a system to an organization as high-profile and respected at Oak Ridge Lab is a major credibility booster, and represents a terrific public showcase of what the system can do in areas where wood waste is a viable alternative to fossil fuels.
Tags: biomass, gasification
Tyler Hamilton is editor-in-chief of Corporate Knights magazine and a business columnist for the Toronto Star, Canada's largest daily newspaper. In addition to this Clean Break blog, Tyler writes a weekly column of the same name that discusses trends, happenings and innovators in the clean technology and green energy market. This blog is a personal project started in April 2005. It is not an official blog of the newspaper.
October 3rd, 2008 at 10:07 pm
That is really quite amazing that is will reduce fossil-fuel consumption by 80%. Really… 80% is amazing. Our world is doing a much better job of realizing that we need to control emissions and be more eco-friendly with reducing carbon footprints. More companies should look towards Nexterra systems for controlling and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Good article.