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Board to consider energy lab on campus
The Advocate
The MHCC District board had a surprise decision to make during its Feb. 11 board meeting during a presentation by President Hiroshi Morihara of HM3 Energy.
Though he was only on the agenda to present his proposal, Morihara had prepared a pre-proposal for a U.S. Endowment for Forest and Communities and wanted to include a letter from MHCC stating it intended to be their partner.
In the presentation, HM3 suggested they are able to produce biomass energy briquettes from forest waste and urban wood waste that could be used to replace coal. Morihara said their potential customers are PGE, TransAlta and PacifiCorp – all of which use coal-fired plants and are “under increasing pressure to reduce their carbon, sulfur and mercury emissions.”
During the presentation, Morihara said their first co-fire test of a blend of 10 percent briquettes and 90 percent coal in late January was a success. Their next burn of blends ranging from 50 percent to 100 percent briquettes will take place soon, Morihara said.
Board members Bob Morris, Dave Shields and Brian Freeman all voiced concern over involving themselves in a project considering the short-time frame.
“I can’t support this based on the time frame and possible effects to the college,” said Freeman. “I have no details in front of me.”
Ralph Yates took the other side.
“We have a very entrepreneurial opportunity in front of us right now,” said Yates. “We’ve always talked about doing things like this and haven’t. There is nothing here that is contractually binding. This man is on a time crunch and we should respect that his willingness to get involved.”
Morihara said he simply needs a place to build a testing facility that will be at the company’s own expense. The college would allow HM3 to build the facility on its land, which – when the company was finished as many as 20 years in the future – would be donated to the college as a new possible laboratory or other such facility.
President John Sygielski suggested the college can agree to get involved so HM3 can obtain the grant, and that the board would further review any continued involvement in coming board meetings. The board, without taking an official vote, agreed to further consider the proposal.
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