Huang Tests Alaska Biomass at All Power Lab Labs

Next month, ACEP’s Daisy Huang, UAF Cooperative Extension Service’s Art Nash and the ACEP Power Systems Integration Lab manager, Dave Light, will travel to All Power Labs in Berkeley, California, to test the performance of wood chips from two species of Alaska trees in a 25-kilowatt Power Pallet gasifier.
Superior Pellet Fuels of North Pole is providing the aspen and spruce wood chips, which are being shipped to California. Each test is expected to consume 450 pounds of chips over eight hours. This work is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

The Power Pallet is a candidate for renewable biomass-fired combined heat and power generation in Alaska. All Power Labs is a company whose work we have been observing for a number of years. An early version of the Power Pallet is at the Matanuska Experiment Farm and Extension Center. Nash, Light, Devany Plentovich, several other folks and Huang all went down to see it in operation. The version we are testing this trip is a turnkey system that is a viable candidate for deployment in rural Alaska. The test will measure power output and efficiency and will provide proof-of-concept for performance with Alaska biomass chips.

 

A 25-kW Power Pallet gasifier. Photo courtesy of All Power Labs.