FARMINGTON — University of Maine Trustees, faculty, staff, students and the community gathered at University of Maine at Farmington Sunday afternoon to celebrate and tour the newest addition to campus — a new biomass central heating plant.

The $11 million project is expected to replace 95 percent of the 390,000 gallons of fossil fuel previously burned annually on the local campus. The payback from fuel savings realized is less than 10 years. 

Beavers are diligent, hardworking and great with wood, University of Maine at Farmington President Kathryn A. Foster said Sunday as UMF beaver mascot Chompers stood near.

And it takes a lot of chomping to create wood chips for UMF’s new biomass central heating plant, she said.

About 4,000 tons of local, sustainably harvested wood chips will fuel the heat and water needs reducing the campus’ carbon footprint.

The new biomass plant accounts for nearly 73 percent of the entire University of Maine System’s reduction in heating oil usage this year.

The local campus is now the most sustainable campus in the University system, Luke Kellett, UMF sustainability coordinator, told those gathered for the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Sunday.

Using wood is a return to a simpler, earlier and more sustainable lifestyle, he said. From a tree to a hot shower for a UMF freshman, the chips replicate the journey of humanity. It also catches the campus up to local schools like Mallett and the Mt. Blue Campus, which heat with biomass, he added.

The biomass plant, complete with classroom, will serve as a teaching tool for students and the community, he said.

Ashes will make their way in to composted fertilizer, Foster said.

While heating systems in some buildings on campus were nearly 60 years of age and were difficult to operate, we knew we couldn’t continue with business as usual, said Jeffrey McKay, director of facilities.

Ground was broken last May for the largest single biomass heating plant in Maine.

For more than a month, locally produced wood chips have fired the large boiler creating water temperatures of 200 degrees to travel through 6,000 feet of pipes, fueling 22 buildings across campus, Chris Marshall of Trane U.S. Inc. said.

Trane worked with Dirigo Architectural Engineering to develop the conversion project. It is the largest boiler Messersmith Manufacturing of Michigan produces and the largest Trane has installed in Maine, burning 2 tons of chips per hour, he said.

Underground storage of 120 tons of moisture-laden wood chips travel by conveyor to the boiler. Emissions are cleansed by an electrostatic precipitator, which eliminates smell and dust. On a cold day, white puffs from the stack are steam, he said.

The fully automated system can be monitored by an app for smartphones.

So far, “the plant is working as designed,” Mark Power of Trane said. “It is running perfectly.”

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