Plant achieves carbon dioxide reduction

Statistical evidence from student/faculty research has shown that the College’s biomass gasification plant is running to its full capabilities and will help Middlebury remain on track for its goal of carbon neutrality by 2016.

Over the past year, students working under Director of Sustainability Integration Jack Byrne calculated the inventory of the College’s greenhouse gas production. The inventory counts emissions from energy used to heat and cool buildings on campus; College-funded travel, such as flights and cabs for professors to attend conferences; waste put into landfills; electricity the College purchases; and College-owned vehicles, such as 15-passenger vans and Midd Rides.

Next year, these calculations will include the inventory from the Monterey Institute.

Middlebury’s carbon footprint has been reduced by 35 percent, and much of this is thanks to the successful running of the biomass gasification plant.

Byrne believes that the biomass plant has helped the College maintain its goal for carbon neutrality and will improve in productivity in the next fiscal year.

“We were expecting that we would be, once we got our biomass up and running at full speed, at 40 percent reduction of our carbon footprint,” Byrne said.

“We didn’t quite have a full year of full wood burning in the fiscal year. The people who operate the plant are really pleased with where they are now. They’ve really figured out how to make it work well, and this coming year I’m sure we’ll do really well, even better than this year.”

The explanation for not meeting the 40 percent reduction goal lies in the changes that had to be made to get the biomass working to its full potential.

“Simply stated: the biomass plant did not come with an ‘off-the-shelf’ start-up and operating manual,” said Assistant Director of Facilities Services Mike Moser.

“We quickly realized in the early months of 2009 that we were on our own, and needed to chart new waters to realize a successful operation of this new technology. The individuals that operate this plant have effectively done that, and done it well.”

Moser says the plant was built in order to displace one million gallons of #6 oil with 20,000 tons of biomass — wood chips — annually. From January through September 2010, the plant burned 15,000 tons of chips, which has displaced over 80,000 gallons of oil. It has realized an 82 percent availability rate since January 2010 — 223 days out of 273 days.

Despite the imperfect performance, the biomass staff remain optimistic about the results for the upcoming fiscal year and firmly believes that there will be an increase in productivity for the plant.

Byrne in particular has faith in the capabilities of the plant and those who manage it.
“Those guys who run the biomass plant, they deserve Ph.D.s in biomass gasification,” he said.
Future plans for the biomass plant include harvesting and burning a test willow crop this winter, which will produce up to 200 tons of fuel.

Byrne said that an additional benefit to the biomass plant comes from the money the College has saved by using it.

“We’ve saved about a million dollars in fuel costs since the biomass started up,” he said, “so the money we originally used to buy oil from all over the world, we’re now spending that money within 35 miles of the campus to put money into the local economy for loggers and truckers. They have been having a tough time because both the recession slowed down building and the paper industry in the northeast has shrunk a lot in the past few years, so there’s been a lot less demand for wood. We’ve been able to help those people.”

Byrne also noted that the College’s location in Vermont, a very “green” state, has been helpful. Middlebury buys its energy from the Central Vermont Public Service Corporation, which has proven to be instrumental to reducing our carbon footprint.

“Two thirds of the energy we buy is generated from nuclear and hydroelectric,” Byrne said.

“Those don’t have much carbon emission associated with them, and that makes the electricity part of our carbon footprint quite small, which is unusual. Once you get outside of Vermont or New England, the rest of the country has pretty high carbon electricity, because a lot of it comes from coal.”

Other factors have also contributed to the substantial decrease in the College’s carbon footprint. Missy Beckwith, the head of Waste Management, noted that last year’s overall waste was less than in years past.

“With the economic situation the College was faced with and the prudence practiced in many areas of the College, departments and students were and still are consuming less,” said Beckwith.

The reduction in waste could also be due to the fact that the College now requires outside caterers to take waste from events away with them. This prevents Middlebury from recording this waste for the inventory.

However, the increased student body this year, due to especially large classes of 2011 and 2014, will likely also increase the overall waste tonnages.

“How to Recycle” flyers were handed out to students and staff this year in order to help continue the trend of lessening consumption and reducing waste. The goal is to improve the quality of the materials entering the recycling center, because this decreases handling and sorting times and makes the overall process more efficient.

Some projects in the works include compost buckets, which will be placed in residence halls, as well as an attempt at a carpet-recycling project. Both of these projects are being funded by an Environmental Council grant.