University of Iowa Gets Landmark Air-Quality Deal Enabling More Biofuel Use

by Vanessa Miller (The Gazette) the University of Iowa has reached a first-of-its-kind agreement with state air quality regulators, allowing it to expand its use of biofuels and continue experimenting with environmentally friendly options.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources issued landmark “plant-wide applicability limit” permits to the university on March 28. The permits limit air pollutant emissions collectively across the UI campus, rather than by each of the institution’s 437 emissions sources, allowing officials more flexibility in choosing how to operate.

“This PAL permit means we have to keep track of them still, but we report them all as a big group,” said Ben Fish, UI associate director of utilities and energy management. “And so it allows us the flexibility to run some units more than others — maybe more than we have in the past.”

As long as emissions meet an overall capped level, the university now has the freedom to “run whichever pieces of equipment make the most sense for the university,” Fish said.

“One of the things that happens with this permit is that it makes it easier for us to increase our levels of biomass,” he said. “We could hope to push past some of our previous levels of biomass usage because we have this in place.”

The university now blends coal with oat hulls from Quaker Oats in Cedar Rapids — a practice the main power plant began more than 13 years.

The new permits, which will be in effect for the next decade, still require the university to track its emissions monthly, report annually, and operate below a set cap for seven air pollutants that are regulated under the federal Clean Air Act.

Fish said emissions of those pollutants don’t increase with use of biomass fuels.

“However, the old permitting method didn’t necessarily recognize that,” he said. “As odd as it may sound, the Clean Air Act has some provisions that are older that actually impeded our ability to move off coal and onto biomass.” READ MORE