Green Horizons

The MU Energy Plant’s new biomass boiler will not only reduce the university’s greenhouse gas emissions, but dollars once used to purchase southern Illinois coal will now be used to buy renewable Mid-Missouri woody biomass.

Pardon the pun, but wood-to-energy projects are “heating up” around the state.

In mid-April, the University of Missouri at Columbia announced plans to replace one of its six boilers with a state-of-the-art unit that will burn 100 percent biomass fuel. While it will be capable of burning switch grass, corn stover, and pelletized clean paper waste, its main diet will be wood chips; 100,000 tons annually.

Installation is scheduled to begin sometime in 2010. The target date for full commissioning of the boiler is set for the third quarter of 2012.

MU foresters are currently working with the Energy Plant in developing a comprehensive procurement program that will integrate a number of woody biomass streams including urban wood waste, utility right-of-way trimmings, clean paper waste, logging residues, and forest thinnings.

Stay tuned to GH for the latest developments on this project as well as others that may be announced in the coming months.