VANCOUVER -- The University of British Columbia (UBC) and Nexterra Systems Corp., a leading biomass gasification company, has announced that UBC will install and demonstrate a unique, on-site biomass-fuelled combined heat and power (CHP) solution developed by Nexterra and GE Power & Water's gas engine division. The CHP system will be located at UBC's Vancouver campus, where it will provide clean, renewable heat and electricity for the campus, while offering a platform for bioenergy research.
The new CHP system, the first of its kind in North America, combines Nexterra gasification and syngas conditioning technologies with a GE high efficiency Jenbacher gas engine. Woody biomass will be gasified and converted into clean synthetic gas (or "syngas") that will be directly fired into a gas engine. The CHP system will be capable of providing very high net efficiencies - up to 65 percent in cogeneration mode. The system will produce renewable heat and power while surpassing Metro Vancouver's air quality standards.
The solution will produce 2 megawatts of clean, cost-effective electricity that will offset UBC's existing power consumption. This is the equivalent electricity required to power about 1,500 homes. The system will also generate enough steam to displace up to 12 percent of the natural gas that UBC uses for campus heating, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions by up to 4,500 tons per year. This is the equivalent of taking more than 1,100 cars off the road.
UBC is also collaborating with FPInnovations to house the CHP System in a building designed and constructed using cross-laminate timber (CLT). CLT is a new solid wood building material that can be used as a low carbon, renewable alternative to steel frame construction. This will be one of the first CLT buildings in North America and will demonstrate its market potential for the forest industry.
Funding support is being provided from the following organizations: Government of Canada's Clean Energy Fund administered through Natural Resources Canada; Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC), an arm's-length, not-for-profit corporation created by the Government of Canada; the BC Bioenergy Network (BCBN); and FPInnovations.
Nexterra
www.nexterra.ca
