Nexterra Systems, a supplier of biomass gasification solutions for institutional and industrial sectors, has entered into a collaborative bioenergy research agreement with the University of British Columbia (UBC).
Under the terms of the agreement, both the organizations will jointly work to develop an improved method for conditioning synthetic gas using the proprietary biomass gasification technology from Nexterra.
UBC and Nexterra will evaluate the ability of a new, less costly catalytic process to remove tars from the synthetic gas generated by Nexterra's biomass gasification technology. The project work will be carried out at Nexterra's Product Development Centre located in Kamloops, British Columbia, as well as at UBC.
This is the first agreement to be signed under the Bioenergy Research and Demonstration Project (BRDP), a joint initiative of UBC and Nexterra launched in February 2010. The initiative comprises installation of a new biomass plant at UBC's Point Grey campus and numerous research, teaching and learning projects.
Biomass gasification technology has great potential to develop and commercialize new synthetic bioenergy fuels and systems. Thus, Nexterra's technology and the BRDP initiative deliver several opportunities for continuing research and development. President and CEO of Nexterra, Jonathan Rhone stated that the partnership with UBC supports development and commercialization of clean energy technologies.