Business (Managing Higher Ed)

Letting the Chips Fall

Norwich University fires up a new biomass facility in order to save approximately $1 million in annual fuel costs.

• By Scott Berman
• 12/01/13

Workers went about their business recently, banging and clanging as necessary to prepare for the first fire up, just days later, of Norwich University’s wood-chip burning facility.

Although the facility was still dormant, the heat was on: The $6.2-million plant is the culmination of a comprehensive process by the private military university to find an secure, economically and environmentally sustainable solution to its rising fuel oil costs. Another spur, according to Norwich: insulating the university “from disruptions in oil supplies.”

The date for that target fire up, and fall, were fast approaching.

One of the leaders of the effort, David Magida, chief administrative officer at the Northfield, VT, institution, led College Planning & Management on a tour of the 5,000-square-foot construction that abuts the campus’ existing power plant. Magida pointed out some of the features of the impressive, brand-new facility that will provide steam for heat, domestic hot water and process.

The features include:

• Two advanced wood-fired boilers, fueled by 13,000 tons of locally sourced wood chips annually, replacing the use of about 657,000 gallons of two kinds of fuel oils.
• An electrostatic precipitator that will trap more than 90 percent of the combustion process’ particulate matter.
• Arrangements to tap into the existing power plant infrastructure, such as the chimney and the original oil tank — it’s now for backup.
• Rails over the plant’s deep wood chip bunkers, enabling trucks to back in and efficiently deposit tons of chips, which are then moved through augers on conveyor belts toward the boilers.

Among the other results: Slashing soot emissions in half, and CO2 emission by a whopping 97 percent; creating 220 tons of ash… on its face a burden, but all of it can be used beneficially, as fertilizer.

Seeking Alternatives

Magida explains that campus officials had been kicking around ideas for alternatives to fuel oil for years, considering propane gas and compressed natural gas, as well as wood chips. Prices for that last fuel have gone up over the years, but so has the level of efficiency of the biomass combustion process. So the focus fixed on wood chips.

In a related move, the campus had conducted an energy audit with SourceOne, a subsidiary of Veolia Energy, and Efficiency Vermont in an initiative that set energyuse goals on the Norwich campus while providing key information. University officials crunched the numbers, creating what Magida calls “thorough, detailed and conservative” financial models — Magida praises the input of Norwich CFO Lauren Wobby throughout the process — that showed a staggering potential advantage: an advanced wood chip plant could save about $1 million annually. At an overall project cost of $6.2 million, the payback period would be about six years, says Magida. Not bad at all, to put it mildly.

Selling the Plan

Next came the board of trustees. He explains, “The board will challenge us, as they should.” And they did, in fact, with questions centering on technical aspects and that financial modeling. “They put us through our paces, very professionally,” Magida says. “They wanted to double and triple check us before committing to spending that kind of money.”

Other steps included visits to other biomass facilities — Magida says ones adept at handling wood impurities were particularly of interest. Eventually, Norwich went with Messersmith Manufacturing for the biomass boiler system.

Involving the Community

There was also the local community. Early in the process, the team at Norwich reached out to stakeholders in the surrounding area, fully briefing local zoning and planning boards. Among the boards’ questions, whether a second heating plant chimney would be needed. The answer was no; the new system would use the plant’s existing stack. Construction and operation noise, and how the new plant would look were concerns; the plant’s location deep within campus mitigated both latter issues.

Two other points emerged locally:

• A chimney plume. Norwich forewarned community stakeholders that, “on colder days, a larger white plume from the (central heating plant’s) chimney will be visible.” However, “this plume is mostly just water vapor.”
• Truck traffic. Annually, about 515 trucks will deliver wood chips, which given fewer oil deliveries, will mean 328 trucks on local roads each year. That includes as many as four trucks daily during the coldest weather — not a significant increase. Magida points out that according to the Vermont Agency of Transportation, about 248 trucks use nearby Route 12, a state highway, each day, so the extra wood delivery trucks “will not detrimentally affect traffic congestion or safety in the area.”

Up and Running

Groundbreaking for the plant was in November 2012, and the ribbon cutting was on October 24, 2013. Before that ribbon cutting, however, and just several days after CP&M’s visit, the new boilers were switched on for the very first time. Naturally, it was a moment of some nervous anticipation. Yet, “everything worked beautifully. No problems or surprises,” Magida reports. “The Messersmith technician will work with other technicians from our mechanical, plumbing and electrical contractors to really put the equipment through its paces.”

In retrospect, a key for the team at Norwich, he believe, was its willingness to ask a lot of questions; of other colleges, contractors, engineers and architects, in addition to state and local officials. “There are some very experienced people out there. Don’t be too proud to ask for as much information as you can,” Magida says.

He’s clearly encouraged. Standing outside the new facility as workers went about their business, Magida didn’t hesitate, when asked for the bottom line, about what the plant means for the university. “Through careful analysis and careful planning, we’re getting something that’s extremely attractive financially and environmentally.”

This article originally appeared in the College Planning & Management December 2013 issue of Spaces4Learning.