Nexterra Systems Corp. has finalized a multi-million dollar agreement with the University of British Columbia (UBC) for a biomass heat and power system.
The deal was originally announced during the 2010 Winter Olympics, but on Tuesday the company received the green light to proceed.
The new biomass gasification system will see urban wood waste converted into clean-burning synthetic gas or syngas. That gas can then be fired into an internal combustion engine to produce two megawatts of electricity at UBC’s Point Grey campus.
The Vancouver-based company said it will break ground on the project this fall. It will take 16 to 18 months before it’s complete.
Spokesman Darcy Quinn told BIV the project is a big deal for the biomass company.
“This is the first gas-fired internal combustion engine application that we’re doing and it’s quite significant to us because it represents a new application for the industry in North America,” said Quinn. “By putting the syngas into an engine you’re getting higher electrical efficiencies, as well you have lower operating requirements and less water requirements. It creates a very interesting paradigm that we think can make biomass power more economic at the small scale.”
North Carolina's Catawba County selected Nexterra in June to build a similar system to feed electricity back into its power grid.
Nexterra CEO Jonathan Rhone told BIV a few weeks ago the company was also looking to attract foreign investment and plans to take Asian investors on a tour of one of its New Westminster gasification systems next month. (See “Bioenergy producers look to soak up Chinese investment” – issue 1084; August 3-9, 2010)