Middlebury College Biomass Gasification Plant

[katheryncruz24]

Thanks! IT's great!

[latriciadetamore]

great clip .. keep it up thanks

[ndanatswa]

way to go Middlebury!! I would like to see a project like this at my school

[deskset24]

Mathematics is the core of all existence. No other language or human activity can compute or tell us the consequences of actions, or tell us how to optimize - minimize or maximize - pain, suffering, convenience, death, fear, work.

The $1M Peta X-Meat prize - to grow synthetic meat without growing a whole animal - is the single most important practical fundamental engineering problem in history: how to get life to minimally feed off other life.

I hope someone at Middlebury goes for it!

[GaunletofDestruction]

@deskset24 You should check out Vitromeat.

[deskset24]

Great work! You should be proud! However, don't get a feeling of self-superiority to those of us working and fighting to outlaw human reproduction and growing animals for meat. Outlawing human overpopulation and eating meat has infinitely greater benefit for the environment than even biomass, plus infinitely greater benefits for more important reasons than just the environment (animal rights, justice).

[geothermal1000]

I know i am a PIA. Couple of questions is anyone wants to entertain an answer. Are the "bamboo Shoots" on VT Route 125 which i know at one point were in the plans to be used at the Biomass plant sterile? I ask because as a non-native vegetation one would hope the spread of such a fast grown plant would be absolutely controlled as to not overrun say...maple trees. 2nd question: is the ash being used as fertilizer introducing anything harmful into soil which could leach into water a source?thnx

[FathomDeep]

Biomass generators are considered carbon neutral by the EPA

[Solaraficionado]

The ash is biochar isnt it? Since the wood oxidises in an O2 starved environment, the ash that is left over contains the 50% of the carbon does it not?

If anyone has an answer please let me know.

[obstaclecorse]

I'm not 100% sure about that. I know that there is some carbon in the ash, but it's not just dumped into a landfill. It is turned into fertilizer by another company.

[hopeforcleanwater]

you've swallowed the hook - spit it out!

they are not burning "wood waste"; they are burning trees which if left growing would capture carbon. Burning is not the answer. Don't fall for the forestry-promoted hype.

[obstaclecorse]

These woodchips are waste left over from furniture and home construction. You must be one of the envirojunkie treehuggers that give the rest of us real environmentalists a bad name. Your kind also make it difficult for the general public to take environmental concerns seriously. The world will not end if people keep cutting trees. In VT most tree cutting is managed and new trees are planted in the place of those harvested. Take a shower and shave your legs, I can smell you from here.

[hopeforcleanwater]

you just proved your ignorance.

[deskset24]

@obstaclecorse Nobody is responsible for what other people think or how others act. The anti-environmentalists, the conservatives, the Demopubs and Republicrats are responsible for their own actions - not some hippy. I hate stupid folk & hippy music, too. It's got nothing to do with helping any cause. But I also hate gospel music, because of all that fantasy "god" bullshit.

Christian conservatives have been giving free-marketesr a bad name for years, but they're still active.

[jpourkav]

explain to me how leftover scraps from a lumber mill is not considered wood waste??? They are NOT cutting down trees to feed to the biomass gasifier you idiot.... btw gasifiers can use anything from trash to municipal waste... anything that came from a living thing can be turned into energy

[hopeforcleanwater]

it's not carbon neutral. Pity the poor students who will suffer from the emissions.

[obstaclecorse]

The emissions are 99.99% water vapor. There are zero carbon dioxide emissions from this plant. I spend a considerable amount of time in Middlebury, VT I live about 45 minutes north of Middlebury where our electricity is generated by a traditional woodchip burning plant. What a difference in air quality. At the Middlebury College Biomass Plant, the only chemical(I think) in the emissions that is harmful is dioxin which is way below fed standards and well below traditional power plants.

[hopeforcleanwater]

There is no safe level of dioxin exposure.

Check your current level of air pollution in the Am Lung Assoc' s State of the Air Report 2009 . Biomass plants worsen air quality which causes more heart attacks, asthma, strokes, cancer , infant mortality, & shorten lifespans. Air pollution is a risk factor for breast cancer in women; African American infants are more likely to die from air pollution impacts than white kids. The bottom line is that everyone is at risk from air pollution.

[aquifer45]

This was under construction when I visited campus - this is, in a nutshell, why I want to go to Middlebury - it's environmental stewardship. Great job Middlebury!