BCIT has opened a new $1.5 million Wood Waste to Energy Centre (WWEC) at its Burnaby Campus which uses a biomass boiler to recycle wood waste into clean energy.

Every year, the centre will use 250 tons of wood cut-offs and sawdust from Carpentry and Joinery programs to heat buildings at the Burnaby Campus. The project was supported with $340,000 from British Columbia’s Ministry of Environment and Climate Change Strategy Carbon Neutral Capital Program (CNCP) and brings to life elements of the province’s Clean BC plan. The project was also supported by $200,000 from theBC Bioenergy Network

The boiler which currently heats buildings NE2 and NE4 saves 1 per cent of BCITs total emissions, equivalent to 75 tCO2e GHG. However, the system could be expanded in the future to save up to 240 tCO2e Greenhouse Gas annually, which equates to 3 per cent of BCITs total emissions. The project will also reduce transportation emissions because the wood waste will no longer need to be trucked away from campus for disposal.

“The low-carbon heating system serves as a great example of a living lab. Trades and technology students were involved in the planning, design and construction of the facility,” said Wayne Hand, dean, BCIT School of Construction and the Environment.

“Now that the facility is operational, BCIT students get to visit the site on a regular basis to learn about the maintenance and operation of a biomass-driven pressure vessel. This is the final element of a series of clean tech projects that reduced the School of Construction and Environment GHG emissions by more than 75 per cent in the buildings where we teach welding, piping, carpentry and joinery.”

The centre has three main elements:

• The system starts with clean, kiln-dried lumber off-cuts, which are sent to a chipper and cut into inch-long chips. These are stored in a silo and fed into the biomass boiler by an auger.
• The water in the boiler is heated by burning the wood chips and then piped to heat the adjacent buildings (NE2 and NE4). Fan unit heaters blow air over hot water coils to deliver warm air to the Carpentry and Joinery shop spaces.
• The exhaust from the boiler system is run through a multi-stage filter to ensure that it meets strict emissions regulations from Metro Vancouver.