UNBC researchers have been awarded nearly $250,000 in federal and provincial funding to apply technology already being developed at the university to study air pollution emissions from bioenergy equipment.
The funding will be used to develop a terahertz spectrometer, which will be used initially to analyze gases and particles emitted by a small bioenergy plant that heats UNBC's I.K. Barber Enhanced Forest Laboratory. Later, the technology will be used to study emissions from a much larger $14.8-million bioenergy plant that is currently under construction at the university.
"Rapid advances are driving the development of new applications at an astonishing rate," said UNBC physicist Matt Reid. "We are particularly excited to be developing cutting edge terahertz research to solve problems of significance to the local community."
Air pollution is considered a key issue in Prince George, which perennially ranks among the communities in B.C. with the worst levels of fine particulate air pollution.
Bioenergy has been trumpeted as a good use of wood waste, expected to increase as the B.C. Interior's beetle-killed pine forests are logged. However, critics have levelled concerns about the emissions of such plants, and particularly where they are located.
In 2008, the location of a $8.3-million downtown heating system ran into opposition from the nearby Millar Addition neighbourhood over air quality concerns. Although the plant was estimated to produce only one tonne of fine particulates, the residents said it was one tonne too much given the city's downtown air quality problems. City council decided the project may go forward, but not next to the Millar Addition neighbourhood.
Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond, in announcing the funding, noted that UNBC researchers have given B.C. a world-class reputation for advancing the knowledge of terahertz waves. "With this funding, these top researchers will help develop tools to make these (bioenergy) processes cleaner and more efficient, which will help expand B.C.'s green economy and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions," said Bond.
Reid has already been doing research at UNBC into the uses of Terahertz waves, which may have potential as a tool in areas such as the forest industry, airport security scanning and skin cancer testing.
Terahertz waves fall between microwaves and the infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. They can be used like X-rays to see through objects - but, unlike X-rays, pose no health risks.
Copyright © 2009 The Prince George Citizen
