• About
    • About Us
    • What We Cover
  • Advertise
    • Advertise
    • Our Advertisers
  • Contact
  • Donate
  • Send News
  • Subscribe

Oak Ridge Today

  • Home
  • Sign in
  • News
    • Business
    • Community
    • Education
    • Government
    • Health
    • Police and Fire
    • U.S. Department of Energy
    • Weather
  • Sports
    • High School
    • Middle School
    • Recreation
    • Rowing
    • Youth
  • Entertainment
    • Arts
    • Dancing
    • Movies
    • Music
    • Television
    • Theater
  • Premium Content
  • Obituaries
  • Classifieds

ORNL steam plant burns wood chips, saves energy

Posted at 11:53 pm July 20, 2012
By John Huotari Leave a Comment

ORNL Central Biomass Steam Plant

A steam plant that burns wood chips at Oak Ridge National Laboratory is expected to help save energy and reduce fossil fuel consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. At right is a blue wood chip hopper, at left in background is the exhaust stack, and at right in background is the steam plant.

A new steam plant that burns wood chips at Oak Ridge National Laboratory will save energy, reduce fossil fuel consumption, and cut greenhouse gas emissions, officials said Thursday.

The Central Biomass Steam Plant can produce 60,000 pounds of steam per hour. The steam is used to heat buildings during cold winter months and support research applications at ORNL.

The 21-megawatt plant is the flagship project in a $94 million, four-year-old Energy Savings Performance Contract with Johnson Controls Inc. of Milwaukee, Wis.

Officials had a dedication ceremony for the steam plant Thursday.

Biomass Steam Plant Storage Building

A storage building can hold a three-day supply of wood chips when full.

ORNL Biomass Steam Plant Boiler

Rob Crowell, ORNL biomass commissioning specialist, shows the boiler inside the Central Biomass Steam Plant.

Biomass Steam Plant Control Room

Crowell starts a media tour of the Central Biomass Steam Plant in the control room.

ORNL worked with Johnson Controls and Nexterra Energy Corporation to build the steam plant, which replaces a natural gas steam plant, allowing the lab to shut down four fossil fuel boilers.

The new plant can burn about 10 to 12 truckloads per day of local, renewable wood and wood products, or up to 77,000 tons of waste wood per year.

The wood chips are fed into a gasification chamber, where they reach temperatures of 1,500 to 1,800 degrees Fahrenheit. The chips do not burn in the oxygen-starved environment, and high-temperature combustible synthetic gas (or syngas) is extracted. The syngas moves into an oxidizer, where it is combined with oxygen and burns.

The flue gas is then routed to a boiler, where the steam is produced.

The exhaust gas is sent through electrostatic precipitators for cleaning before it is discharged to the atmosphere, “resulting in very low particulate emissions compared to those of natural gas and fuel oil,” according to information supplied by the lab.

The information said the biomass-fueled system will, when combined with two remaining boilers, reduce fossil fuel consumption by more than 70 percent and cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than 20,000 tons a year, the equivalent of between 6,000 and 9,000 cars per year, the information said.

The energy savings contract with Johnson Controls, which also includes digital metering and lighting and mechanical equipment upgrades, is expected to save an estimated $8. 5 million per year, the information said.

Filed Under: Top Stories, U.S. Department of Energy Tagged With: Central Biomass Steam Plant, Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Advertisements


 

Join the club!

If you appreciate our work, please consider subscribing. Besides helping us, your subscription will give you access to our premium content.

Most of our stories are free, brought to you by Oak Ridge Today with help from our members—advertisers, subscribers, and sponsors.

But some are premium content, available only to members. Those are in-depth, investigative, or exclusive stories that are available only on Oak Ridge Today. They generally require at least four hours to report, write, and publish.

You can subscribe for as little as $5 per month.

You can read more about your options here.

We currently offer five primary subscription options to readers, and they include benefits.

Basic

  • Basic monthly subscription ($5 per month)—access premium content
  • Basic annual subscription ($60 per year)—access premium content

Pro

  • Pro monthly subscription ($10 per month)—access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month
  • Pro annual subscription ($100 per year)—save $20 per year, access premium content, get breaking news emails first, and submit one press release or public service announcement per month

Temporary

  • Temporary access ($3 per week for two weeks)

We also have advanced subscription options. You can see them here.

We also accept donations. You can donate here.

If you prefer to send a check for a subscription or donation, you may do so by mailing one to:

Oak Ridge Today
P.O. Box 6064
Oak Ridge, TN 37831

Thank you for your consideration and for reading Oak Ridge Today. We appreciate your support.

Commenting Guidelines

We welcome comments, but we ask you to follow a few guidelines:

1) Please use your real name, including last name. Please also use a valid e-mail address.
2) Be civil. Don't insult others, attack their character, or get personal.
3) Stick to the issues.
4) No profanity.
5) Keep your comments to a reasonable length and to a reasonable number per article.

We reserve the right to remove any comments that violate these guidelines. Comments held for review, usually from those posting for the first time, may not post if they violate these guidelines. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Thank you also for reading Oak Ridge Today and for participating in the discussion.

More information is available here.

More U.S. Department of Energy News

Disposing of uranium waste could cost at least $7.2 billion

The U.S. Department of Energy estimates it could cost at least $7.2 billion to convert and dispose of tens of thousands of cylinders of depleted uranium hexafluoride, a dangerous, corrosive waste byproduct of the uranium … [Read More...]

Y-12 now getting power from Pine Ridge substation

Submitted The Y-12 National Security Complex flipped the switch on a new era as crews finalized the process of moving the entire site’s electrical supply to the new Pine Ridge substation. In June, the Building … [Read More...]

DOE picks Idaho for nuclear test reactor

The U.S. Department of Energy has decided to build a nuclear test reactor at Idaho National Laboratory to study fuels and materials. Besides INL, Oak Ridge National Laboratory had been considered as a potential site … [Read More...]

DOE bus tours restart in Oak Ridge

U.S. Department of Energy public bus tours have resumed in Oak Ridge after a two-year pause due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The tours began running again on July 11, and they are scheduled to continue through … [Read More...]

Crews prepare former ORNL reactors for demolition

The U.S. Department of Energy and cleanup contractor UCOR are preparing to demolish research reactor facilities at Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Crews are nearing the final stages of deactivation inside two former … [Read More...]

More DOE

Recent Posts

  • ORAU launches new app with a variety of resources available, including hundreds of STEM internships, fellowships and research opportunities
  • Disposing of uranium waste could cost at least $7.2 billion
  • Y-12 now getting power from Pine Ridge substation
  • Man sentenced to 8 years after fleeing, crashing, attempting carjackings
  • Three Ohio residents die in two-vehicle crash
  • DOE picks Idaho for nuclear test reactor
  • TBI investigating man’s death
  • Luminarias to feature peace messages
  • Oak Ridge tennis court dance is Thursday
  • DOE bus tours restart in Oak Ridge

Search Oak Ridge Today

About Us

About Oak Ridge Today
What We Cover

How To

Advertise
Subscribe

Contact Us

Contact Oak Ridge Today

Copyright © 2022 Oak Ridge Today