DAN SEARS ’ 74
“The regulatory issue is huge,” says Ray DuBose, UNC’s director of energy services, who notes that the University’s 2009 climate action plan is based
on the assumption that CO2 will be regulated. “We feel like we’re being prudent [by looking beyond coal].”
coal as a solid fuel,” he said.
But natural gas brings its own baggage,
enough to make it a transitional fuel rather
than the ultimate solution. While it is cleaner
than coal, it is still a fossil fuel and a source of
carbon emissions. Its price, meanwhile, is far
more volatile than that of coal. And finally,
the UNC plant, which still has a good 30
years of life left in it — and more than $90
million in debt left on it — requires at least
50 percent solid fuel, which effectively caps
the amount of natural gas that it could burn.
Out of all the coal substitutes UNC has
looked at — and consultants have offered up
some 15 different scenarios — biomass has
emerged as the leading candidate. Biomass
simply means burning biological material —
wood, grass or other plants — to generate
power. In some cases, the wood is first tor-refied, or slowly roasted to decrease moisture
content and increase energy content.
Biomass proponents say it has a number
of advantages as a coal substitute. It is low
in sulfur and mercury emissions, for exam-
ple. And they also argue that, if done prop-
erly, burning biomass is carbon neutral —
meaning that the carbon dioxide emitted
by burning it is reabsorbed by the new
plants and trees planted to replace it.
‘When you displace fossil fuels
with some sort of biomass, and
if you keep that source producing
biomass, it is largely carbon neutral.’
Dennis Hazel
associate professor in N.C. State University’s
department of forestry and environmental resources
other waste wood, landowners would have
an economic incentive to properly manage
their forestland.
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