Since 1863, the colors of the University of Massachusetts have been Maroon and White.  And if you know Amherst, Massachusetts, USA, the hometown of that school, you know of the dazzling changes in color visible in the autumn.  So, combining that color-changing capacity with world-class research has added a new color to the University’s color scheme.

You can probably guess that color.  Yep.  It’s green.

“At UMass Amherst,” says Chancellor Robert Holub, “We build green, we research green and we help the entire country envision a green future. The campus has worked at this tirelessly for years, and now our expertise and leadership position are being recognized.”  This comes from a recent article at the University of Massachusetts’ website, linked here.

There are quite a few efforts going on at the University which should pique the interest of our PM readers, but there are two that we’ll focus on – here in this posting and in a follow up interview to appear on EarthPM shortly.  We expect to be talking with the scientist responsible for the “green gas” project as well as the project manager for the University’s award-winning Central Heating Plant, and of course we’ll post those interviews in our interviews section as soon as they’re available.

Green Gas At UMass: UMass scientist George Huber’s patent-pending technique offers a low-cost, single-step process for turning sawdust, woody stalks and other waste biomass into gasoline, diesel fuel, heating oil and valuable chemical commodities such as benzene, toluene and xylenes. Huber is a co-founder of Anellotech and chair of Anellotech’s scientific advisory board.

Using Huber’s rapid new catalytic pyrolysis technology, Anellotech has already demonstrated commercially relevant production not only of gasoline and biofuel precursors but of benzene, toluene and xylene in milligram and gram-scale bench-top reactors. Global markets for these chemicals are in excess of $50 billion at present.

Huber’s spinoff, Anellotech, is pursuing a $20 million grant from the U.S. Department of Energy’s Demonstration of Integrated Biorefinery Operations initiative. This funding could place a pilot-scale biorefinery in the Springfield area with jobs for an estimated 25 workers at each company’s facility. Anellotech takes advantage of Huber’s fast, efficient process for producing gasoline and diesel fuel from waste wood, corn and other materials. He and Anellotech recently received a $1.9 million Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) grant to investigate new catalysts for low-cost conversion of biomass into a liquid that can be refined to a fuel such as JP-8 jet fuel.  Source: GreenCarCongress.com

You really must see the very short video about this ‘green gasoline’ – here.  It’s featured on the US Government’s National Science Foundation site.

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Green Power: The campus’s award-winning Central Heating Plant began operating this winter. Ten years in the planning, the facility replaces a coal-fired plant built more than 90 years ago. It relies on natural gas and diesel for fuel and is capable of generating both steam and electricity. Eventually, the campus will be capable of producing 80 percent of its total electrical load. Greenhouse gases will decrease by 6 percent in the coming year, due to the plant alone.  Here’s a little more detail about this facility:

Its power process systems include a 10 mw combustion gas turbine, a heat recovery steam generator, four package boilers, various administrative spaces and auxiliary equipment.  The new CHP will produce 10 million watts of electricity at 13.8 kilovolts for on-campus consumption.  A heat recovery steam generator will use the exhaust heat from the gas turbine to produce steam for campus heating year-round.  Three package boilers, each rated up to 125,000 pounds per hour steam, will provide additional steam capacity to meet campus demand in the spring, fall, and winter months.  Environmental controls include selective catalytic reduction to control the emissions of nitrous oxide, and oxidation catalysts to control carbon monoxide emissions.
So whatever colors your Alma Mater has in its branding, have they considered adding green?  It looks like the green gauntlet has been thrown…

Stay tuned to EarthPM.com – we will be following up this story with an interview with the principals involved.

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