A wood gasification system was installed at a park in South Sioux City, Nebraska, a report by The Sioux City Journal says. The system, developed by Green Star Gasifiers, Bowling Green, Nebraska, will generate power for the Scenic Park’s campgrounds and a nearby water treatment plant.
The park purchased the gasifier at a total of $216,411 through funds from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s Nebraska Forest Service and the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, who awarded the park an estimated $62,918 and $90,575, according to the report. The remaining project costs came out of the city fund.
The gasifier will use wood chips from around 500 trees that must be cut down because of the threat of the Emerald Ash Borer beetle, the Sioux City Journal says. Around 20 percent of the city’s trees are ash trees that will be cut down to chips, dumped into a heated hopper and turned into biogas that will fuel a generator.
The gasifier will save the city around $40,000 in energy costs, Rod Koch, the city’s major, told the Sioux City Journal.
A ribbon cutting was scheduled for April 29, the report says, and the gasifier was scheduled to power up the following week.
