Nexterra opens biomass energy plant in Tennessee

After a rigorous and comprehensive testing program which included a 30 day endurance trial, third party emissions tests and an exhaustive readiness review, the system was officially declared open by the DOE and ready for full commercial operation.

The system is the sixth Nexterra system to enter commercial operation.
The Nexterra system is a cornerstone of a $94 million Energy Savings Performance Contract (ESPC) for Johnson Controls to undertake a wide range of building management and energy conservation measures at ORNL. Nexterra supplied the complete energy-from-renewable-waste system, from fuel handling and storage through to the exhaust stack. The system converts low-cost waste biomass into a clean burning syngas to produce 60,000 lbs/hr of saturated steam, reducing fossil fuel consumption by 80 per cent. The system will reduce greenhouse gas emissions by over 20,000 tonnes per year. This is the equivalent of removing 4,000 cars from the road each year.

"This project demonstrates that public institutions and private companies can partner to supply innovative clean-energy technologies on a large scale," said ORNL Site Office Manager Johnny Moore. "The biomass plant will also provide an opportunity for researchers to gather important data from a large-scale biomass process."

"Johnson Controls and Nexterra combined expertise and leading technology to create a winning solution for ORNL," said Iain Campbell, Vice President and General Manager, Johnson Controls. "The results of this teamwork will have a positive impact on the campus, the local community and the environment."

"We are very proud to have been part of this project," said Mike Scott, President and CEO of Nexterra. "It is another great demonstration that our energy-from-renewable-waste systems are of the highest quality and can meet the most demanding customer requirements while delivering world-class emissions performance. Our systems now have over 100,000 hours of operation in a range of institutional and industrial settings."

The Johnson Controls contract for ORNL was among the first awarded under the Department of Energy's Transformational Energy Action Management (TEAM) Initiative. TEAM aims to reduce energy waste and greenhouse gases at DOE facilities nationwide by 30 per cent and have those facilities acquire at least 7.5 per cent of all energy from renewable sources by 2015.