UBC Installs Energy-From-Renewable-Waste CHP System

by | Sep 17, 2012

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The University of British Columbia’s Vancouver campus has installed an energy-from-renewable-waste combined heat and power (CHP) system.

This is North America’s first commercial demonstration of a transformative system that combines Nexterra’s gasification and syngas conditioning technologies with one of GE’s high-efficient Jenbacher internal combustion engines.

GE’s Jenbacher gas engine will produce 2 MW of  renewable electricity that will offset UBC’s existing power consumption, enough to power approximately 1,500 homes. The Nexterra system will also generate 3 MW of thermal energy, enough steam to displace up to 12 percent of UBC’s natural gas consumption. This will reduce UBC’s greenhouse gas emissions by up to 5,000 tonnes per year which is the equivalent of taking more than 1,000 cars off the road.

Using Nexterra’s gasification technology platform and gas clean-up and thermal cracking solution, the project at UBC – officially named the “Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Facility” converts locally-sourced waste wood into a gas that is suitable for use in a high-efficiency, industrial-scale gas engine to produce heat and power. The system will deliver global electrical efficiencies that are 25% higher than traditional methods for producing biomass-based electricity at this scale, according to the companies involved.

Funding support this project was provided by: the Government of Canada (Natural Resources Canada and Western Economic Diversification Canada); the Province of British Columbia (BC Innovative Clean Energy Fund and the Ministry of Forests, Mines and Lands); Sustainable Development Technologies Canada (SDTC), the BC Bioenergy Network and FP Innovations.

You can download a project profile here.

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