Wood Chip Fuel Feasibility Study

Service: Project Management, Research
Client: H&S Development Corporation, Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse
Estimated Completion Date: March 2008

Port City Studios is managing a feasibility study for H&S Development Corporation and Struever Bros. Eccles & Rouse in Baltimore, MD. The two firms are investigating the use of wood-fuel, and in particular urban wood waste processed as wood chips, as a fuel source for Combined Heat and Power systems. CHP systems (also referred to as cogeneration) are an approach to producing both electricity and heat from a single fuel source. This approach provides both economic and environmental advantages. Wood burned in a gasification process, which is a core technology of most CHP applications, produces net-neutral carbon emissions, increases energy efficiency on average of 60%, and significantly lowers fuel cost. A win-win scenario for everyone. If successful, the wood-powered CHP systems could provide heating, cooling and electricity for up to 14 million square feet of buildings along the Baltimore waterfront.

Image: “Tree Station,” wood processing plant London, UK