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comment Whole Grains Good for Your Health… And Your Energy Bill?
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Part of the reason sustainability is so appealing is that the possibilities for innovative design are constantly evolving and the ideas are endless. Not only are college campuses across the country integrating sustainability into their curriculums, but they are also pioneering some of the most imaginative green techniques and testing them on their own facilities.
The University of Iowa has partnered with a Quaker Oats plant to use oat hulls, the protective shells of the oat, as a fuel source. The cereal-making byproduct is co-fired with coal in a circulating fluidized bed (CFB) boiler. The energy produced from the combustion of the sunflower seed-sized oat hulls does not result in carbon dioxide emissions and replaces energy that would have come from burning coal.
Since the inception of the project in 2003 through 2008, biomass has displaced over 120,000 tons of coal and represented an average of 12 percent of the University’s fuel (coal, natural gas, and biomass) and electric power consumption, saving an estimated $4 million.
As participants of the Chicago Climate Exchange, the University is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. With the University Power Plant consisting of four permanent (two coal and two natural gas) and two temporary (natural gas) boilers, management is currently developing and exploring options to make the other coal-burning boiler co-fire biomass (possibly poplar wood chips).
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