Auburn University’s Renewable Energy Message Going Mobile

Auburn University’s Natural Resources Management & Development Institute is taking its renewable energy and technology message on the road beginning Jan. 22.

As part of its ongoing effort to educate Alabamians about bioenergy as well as emerging renewable energy technologies pioneered by Auburn University, the NRMDI, in partnership with Alabama Power, will equip a mobile gasification power generation unit to travel the highways and byways of the state.

This self-contained unit, designed and built by Community Power Corporation of Littleton, Colo., to AU specifications, will be used to demonstrate how electrical power and heat can be generated from carbon-neutral biomass feedstocks widely available throughout the state. Many of these biomass feedstocks are generated by Alabama’s multibillion-dollar row-crop, forestry and poultry industries as well as from by-products created from the management of municipal green wastes.

Through its Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts, NRMDI will debut this new technology, Tuesday, Jan. 22, on Union Street adjacent to the Alabama State House in Montgomery as part of Alabama Energy Day, a press and public event sponsored through the Alabama Permanent Joint Legislative Committee on Energy to announce legislation proposed for the upcoming legislative session.

Showing how this gasification technique can be used to generate electric power and heat is only one goal of the Jan. 22 demonstration and others that will follow. Organizers also hope to identify additional improvements in this technology as a cost-effective way to supplement traditional energy sources. They also plan to develop a cadre of engineers trained in these techniques and equipped to assume leading roles in this critical area of renewable energy, according to Dr. Steven Taylor, who heads NRMDI’s Center for Bioenergy and Bioproducts.

NRMDI Executive Director Larry Fillmer credits Alabama Power with playing a key role in these demonstration efforts.

“We are deeply grateful to Alabama Power for helping Auburn University pioneer this renewable energy effort,” says Fillmer. “We believe the mobile gasification unit will help us take a giant leap in our efforts to show Alabama businesses and entrepreneurs how they can begin tapping into our state’s treasure trove of biomass products.”

For more information about upcoming demonstrations of the gasification unit, contact the NRMDI at (334) 844-6142.

Posted by Jim Langcuster at January 22, 2008 01:59 PM