University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire began the first of many trial runs Wednesday to test the efficiency of wood as a biomass in its coal-fired power plant.
The power plant, which provides energy to university buildings on campus, is exploring biomass options with high-efficiency wood pellets expected to replace 10 to 15 percent of coal usage at the power plant.
The wood pellets have been broken down to have all the moisture removed from them, which increases their energy efficiency as a fuel, said Jim Franklin, supervisor at the UW-Eau Claire power plant.
The special process that goes into rendering the wood pellets is hoped to set it apart from past attempts to integrate biomass into the plant. According to Franklin, five years ago the power plant unsuccessfully tried to use paper pellets and rubber tires.
The wood pellets are the first biomass trial run since the unsuccessful trials.
Franklin said in recent years the coal plant has lowered its usage from 9,000 tons of coal to 6,500 tons of coal.
He said some of this drop was because the hospital it had formerly been supplying with steam became self-sufficient with its energy.
The ultimate goals of the trials are to find a sustainable biomass that will work with the current infrastructure and power plant and to develop a plan for biomass energy that will be approved by the state and receive state funding, Franklin said.
“If we can learn this is feasible, then UW-Eau Claire can submit a plan to the state,” Franklin said.
During the first day the wood pellets were used, there were some issues with the break down of the wood pellets that impeded efficiency. Franklin said encountering problems is part of the process of the test, and the plant is looking at ways to fix the issue.
Faramarz Vakili, director of WE Conserve, said UW-Madison is also making the shift to using wood products as biomass fuel on campus instead of coal.
“This is nothing new for us. We’re trying to [use] as much renewable fuel as possible,” Vakili said.
UW-Madison received state funding to make the shift from using coal to biomass and natural gas on campus in Sept. 2009. While the market is still being developed for biofuels, the campus would use natural gas, Vakili said.
Vakili is also in charge of the Charter Street Coal Plant, which has received a $250 million investment from the state of Wisconsin to rebuild the plant as part of a plan to phase out coal use altogether on campus.
The project is expected to begin May 2010 and is projected to be finished Dec. 2013.
According to Vakili, the plan will replace campus use of coal with natural gas and biomass fuels and hopefully help foster the developing market of biofuels.