“We’re gradually trying to electrify our fleet,” says �ֲ���ý’ Sustainability Manager Tom Twist, referring to the 50 or so vehicles, from “golf carts” to vans and pickups to a Ford dump truck, that keep goods and people in circulation around �ֲ���ý.

The latest step in that process was the acquisition of two new all-electric Nissan Leafs. Joining six street-legal battery-powered carts already on the college’s electric vehicle roster, the Leafs have supplanted conventionally powered vans used as student shuttles by the Harward Center for Community Partnerships and Student Affairs.

With a �ֲ���ý pickup parked behind it, one of the college’s two new Nissan Leaf EVs is shown in campus shuttle service in front of Chase Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

“We knew we wanted to replace some aging vehicles in the fleet,” says Twist, who contributed his green expertise to the acquisition process led by Jay Phillips, director of operations for Facility Services. One of those aging vehicles, for example, was a van that the Harward Center used to bring students to research and volunteer commitments.

“Electric vehicles are really a nice fit, especially for just traveling around Lewiston-Auburn. So it makes a lot of sense.”

Because all of �ֲ���ý’ electricity comes from carbon-neutral sources, replacing gas-fueled conveyances with the Leafs reduces the college’s fossil-carbon footprint somewhat. (That footprint, by the way, shrank dramatically last year with the introduction of Renewable Heating Oil for campus-wide heat.)

What’s more significant is what the Leafs represent: the start of what’s likely to be, as EV prices come down and their capabilities expand, a substantial college commitment to the technology.

Leaf juice: One of �ֲ���ý’ two new battery-powered Nissan Leafs takes a charge behind Kalperis Hall. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Twist points out that the new Leafs have a much improved range on a battery charge than previous models. The U.S. that the original Leaf could travel 73 miles on a fresh charge — vs. 151 miles for the 2018 Leafs that �ֲ���ý now leases.

For �ֲ���ý’ needs, that’s ample range. Although the Leaf ranks fifth for range in the all-electric sweepstakes, behind the Chevy Bolt and Tesla’s three models, those competitors also cost more. And �ֲ���ý got good terms for the lease from Lee Nissan in Topsham, Maine.

Twist and Phillips did some serious research into government and dealer incentives for EVs, says Twist, “which really helped us get the best deal.“ (For example, because �ֲ���ý is tax-exempt, it couldn’t benefit from federal EV tax credits — but Lee did receive the credits and passed the savings to �ֲ���ý.)

“And we shopped around,” Twist adds. Two first-years, Domi Frideger of Durango, Colo., and Elizabeth Eareckson of Reston, Va., helped with shopping, contacting dealerships to price different makes and models. As members of the EcoReps, students who tackle a wide range of sustainability initiatives at �ֲ���ý, Frideger and Eareckson’s focus is electric vehicles and the means to charge them.

One of their projects is to locate a car-sharing service that offers plug-in hybrids, which aren’t available here from Zipcar, the college’s current service. “They’re also looking into pursuing some of the money to see if we could get some of that for charging stations as well.”

Currently �ֲ���ý has four charging stations at two locations, and with demand growing due to both the Leafs and �ֲ���ý folks who drive EVs, the college is exploring the idea of adding a third setup on or around Wood Street. Meanwhile, Twist, Frideger, and Eareckson are investigating ways to help EV drivers avoid scheduling conflicts at the chargers.

Twist is also looking into expedient ways to charge users, so to speak, for charging their cars, so that the college isn’t giving away electricity.

Eric Polley of Facility Services puts the permanent license plates on one of �ֲ���ý’ two new Nissan Leafs. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

In terms of �ֲ���ý’ progress toward sustainability, Twist describes the Leafs as “both a big step and a small step.” Quantitatively, the addition of two EVs to a 50-vehicle fleet is not a great leap toward electrification, he allows.

But it’s a big step, he explains, “in that these are the first electric vehicles we’ve had that are fully roadworthy — they can take people to the Portland airport,” for instance, as opposed to the six low-speed carts that can go over public roadways but only near campus.

The college has timed its entry into EVs well, Twist says, as ranges increase, prices become more reasonable, and more manufacturers offer or plan to offer all-electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles. The Leafs are “such a good fit for many of our vehicle requirements. So if this goes well, it really opens the door to moving forward in a big way.”

Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College

After a summer hiatus, �ֲ���ý recently fired up its two commercial boilers, one of which burns Renewable Fuel Oil — an energy source used by no other college in the nation.

Because it’s both sustainably sourced and competitively priced with fossil fuels, RFO is a “dream come true,” says Tom Twist, the college’s sustainability manager.

Darrel Scribner of Preferred Utilities Manufacturing Corp. starts the RFO burner on Tuesday by inserting what’s known as an ignition oil gun. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/�ֲ���ý College)

In a way it was pleasingly ironic that biting cold and wind on Dec. 9 made outdoor work a challenge for those, like Campus Construction Update, who don’t do it very much.

That’s because the event that drew us over to the Cutten Maintenance Center parking lot was all about heat: a new fuel for heating �ֲ���ý people while reducing the college’s role in global warming.

On that frigid Friday afternoon, �ֲ���ý energy manager John Rasmussen was among those watching Cote Crane and Rigging, of Auburn, erect a new heating-fuel tank next to Cutten. It was one of the final steps in the conversion, which Rasmussen managed, of one of �ֲ���ý’ three central boilers to burn so-called Renewable Fuel Oil, a sustainable fuel sourced from woody plant material.

Surrounded by scaffolding and newly clad in siding to match the adjacent Cutten Maintenance Center, the Renewable Fuel Oil tank is shown on Jan. 19, 2017. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Making steam that warms most of the heart of campus, about 1.1 million square feet of interior space, those boilers are historically responsible for a big share of the college’s greenhouse gas emissions. Since �ֲ���ý switched from natural gas to RFO for its primary heating fuel, on Jan. 10, those emissions have shrunk by roughly 83 percent.

In the 1980s, the Canadian company Ensyn Technologies developed a process for rendering oil, so-called biocrude, from biomass. Like crude petroleum, biocrude can be refined into a variety of products — in fact, the company’s earliest commercial successes include the food seasoning Liquid Smoke.

Although it resembles Liquid Smoke in its dark brown color and smoky odor, Ensyn’s Renewable Fuel Oil does not belong in your barbecue sauce. But it’s great for fueling industrial boilers, and �ֲ���ý’ switch to RFO makes the college the first educational institution, and only the third institution of any kind, in the U.S. now heating with it.

�ֲ���ý energy manager John Rasmussen, at left, and boiler operator John Jasper pose by the new Renewable Fuel Oil burner on Jan. 19, 2017. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

The goal is for RFO to replace about 70 percent (measured in BTUs) of the fossil fuel, primarily natural gas, that �ֲ���ý has burned to heat the campus in recent years. (The other two boilers can each burn either gas or No. 2 fuel oil, with gas the preferred fuel.)

Because RFO is not a fossil fuel, burning it does not release fossil carbon into the atmosphere. �ֲ���ý sustainability manager Tom Twist estimates that in a typical year, burning 70 percent RFO will cut the steam plant’s emission of carbon dioxide equivalents (CO2e) from about 3,080 metric tons to 532.

That cut in emissions would reduce the college’s annual CO2e total, in recent years about 9,000 metric tons, by 2,548, or nearly a third.

Thanks to conservation measures undertaken over the past couple of years by energy manager Rasmussen, “we’re already down about 34 percent this year from our 2001 baseline” of 13,461 metric tons of CO2e, Twist adds. So all told, “we’re probably looking at something like a 60 percent reduction.”

Tanks a lot: With a Cote crane poised for action nearby, a rigger unfastens the Renewable Fuel Oil tank from its trailer on Dec. 9, 2016. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

“It’s a huge drop, which is pretty cool,” says Twist.

RFO is also saving money for �ֲ���ý, thanks in large part to the Environmental Protection Agency’s Renewable Fuel Standard program, which helps renewable fuels compete with fossil fuels in the marketplace.

Twenty-nine feet tall and holding 20,000 gallons, the new tank is the most conspicuous evidence of �ֲ���ý’ conversion to the Ensyn fuel. Thanks to various adventures in transport, including the non-local truck driver’s getting lost in Auburn, the Dec. 9 delivery was late and the sun was setting by the time the tank was offloaded.

In setting up the tank, a more agreeable kind of drama emanated from Cote’s elegant choreography with two telescoping-boom cranes. One hoisted the top of the tank and the other steadied its base, they turned it upright, and then one crane set it on its concrete pad next to Cutten’s western wall.

Up, up, and away, or at least over a few yards: Two Cote cranes orient the RFO tank upright prior to placing it. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Through the ensuing weekend, under the supervision of Lincoln, Maine-based general contractor Fastco Corporation, technicians in various trades connected pipes, wired up sensors and instruments, and installed handrails and other fittings. Later the tank was wrapped, first, in thermal insulation and then in sheet metal similar to the siding on Cutten.

The first RFO was delivered Jan. 4, and several days of testing, tweaking, and curing the ceramic liner of the combustion chamber preceded the formal start of RFO service on the 10th.

Of course, there was more to the $1.1 million conversion project than the tank. The burner, on the college’s No. 1 boiler, is new — a large green contraption, built into the boiler front, in whose center is a little porthole through which you can watch the fierce yellow-orange flame of RFO combustion.

Ensyn ships RFO to the college from Renfrew, west of Ottawa. Once the system is broken in, says Rasmussen, the steam plant will burn about 4,700 gallons of RFO daily, with deliveries scheduled every day except Sunday during the coldest weather.

The RFO tank bolted in place next to Cutten Maintenance Center. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Although �ֲ���ý followed standard fire-prevention practices in the design and installation of the system — a flame arrester at the top of the tank, fireproofed legs supporting it, and so on — “RFO really won’t burn” outside its preferred combustion environment, Rasmussen says.

So RFO, like heavier grades of petroleum fuel oil, needs some cajoling to be combustible. (It takes more than a discussion of contemporary politics.) It must be heated to 160 degrees and atomized with pressurized air by the time it reaches the fuel injector. Doing that work is a series of heat exchangers, compressors, pumps, etc. occupying four equipment stations, or “skids,” on two floors of Cutten.

The Burning Sands: As if the carbon curtailment and the Liquid Smoke angles weren’t compelling enough, we were intrigued to learn more about the proprietary technology that Ensyn uses to make RFO and other products.

Called Rapid Thermal Processing, it’s a variant of a chemical process called pyrolysis. Pulverized woody biomass is blown into an oxygen-free chamber together with very hot sand. In just seconds, the heat breaks the biomass down into vapors, gases (not the same thing as vapors), and char. The vapors are condensed into pyrolysis oil, aka biocrude, while the gases and char are recycled to dry the feedstock and reheat the sand — pretty efficient.

�ֲ���ý’ energy manager first heard from Ensyn in February 2015, a month and year when heating was on every New Englander’s mind. A company rep cold-called Rasmussen on the same day he was about to take a major step forward with plans to convert the steam plant to wood chips — which would have cost about $10 million.

Boiler No. 1 in November 2016, prior to its conversion for burning Renewable Fuel Oil. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Rasmussen was intrigued, and �ֲ���ý  ultimately signed a seven-year contract with the fuel maker.

Tom Twist started work as sustainability manager as Rasmussen was developing �ֲ���ý’ plan for converting to the new fuel. “I had a little bit of nervousness about it, just because so few places are trying RFO,” Twist says.

“But seeing all the due diligence John has gone through, I feel pretty good that it’ll be a fantastic step forward for the college. We can do the right thing and it saves us money, which is like a slam dunk.”

Can we talk? Campus Construction Update welcomes your questions and comments about current, past, and future construction at �ֲ���ý. Write to dhubley@bates.edu, putting “Campus Construction” or “Liquid Smoke!” in the subject line. Or use the 21st-century commenting system below.

The new RFO burner on the central steam plant’s boiler No. 1. Preferred Utilities Manufacturing of Connecticut designed the burner for Ensyn to accommodate RFO’s low pH and high water content. Note the combustion viewing port between the gauges. (Doug Hubley/�ֲ���ý College)

Robert Friedman, a �ֲ���ý College junior, is one of 18 college students nationwide set to lobby international climate treaty negotiators next month on behalf of a Sierra Club youth organization.

An environmental studies major from Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y., Friedman will attend the in Copenhagen, Denmark, Dec. 7-18. Friedman is part of a delegation from the , a network of high school and college-aged environmental activists affiliated with the Sierra Club.

“I’m going to be directly lobbying representatives at all different levels, representatives of NGOs or nations,” explains Friedman, who is co-president of a �ֲ���ý student organization that advocates clean energy policies. “I’m also going to be blogging the entire conference — hopefully live blogging and video blogging.”

He adds, “We are 18 out of more than 100 students from the U.S. going, but there’s a huge international delegation that’s organizing and really has this incredible voice. It’s amazingly inspiring to be a part of it.”

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Friedman had originally applied to attend under the aegis of a different organization, but wasn’t
accepted. “I got really down about things,” he says, “and I was like, ‘I need to be at this conference.'” So he applied to the Sierra coalition just a few days before the deadline — and was accepted.

“I got chills. It was an incredible feeling.”

The Copenhagen conference is intended to produce a treaty that will succeed the 12-year-old Kyoto Protocol as a means of curtailing global climate change by setting rules to govern the emission of greenhouse gases. Though nearly 200 nations signed and ratified the Kyoto treaty, which took effect in 2005, the United States never accepted the protocol.

In Denmark, Friedman says, “youth delegations from all around the world will get together and discuss what we want to see in this final treaty. We’ll be composing various policy memos and talking points that we’ll submit to every government present at the conference — so that’s 192 countries.

“It’s incredible that we have a voice at a United Nations conference. But our voice is incredibly important as we’re the ones who are carrying this burden going forward. So I’m praying that governments will see the light, especially the U.S.”

All manner of public demonstrations will likely roil the atmosphere around the Copenhagen talks. As one of three co-presidents of the student organization �ֲ���ý Energy Action Movement, Friedman is no stranger to political theater. His group, in fact, produced a flash mob-style in the �ֲ���ý dining hall in October as part of the International Day of Climate Action organized by .

BEAM also works the policymaking angle, and has established productive relationships with Maine politicians at the state and national levels. Last spring, for instance, the organization worked with a Maine state representative to mount a letter-writing campaign in support of state legislation promoting clean energy as a job-creation measure.

“We researched the bill and ended up writing 40 letters to local papers all over the state,” Friedman says. “We spoke at the state Senate hearing on behalf of the bill because, when it comes down to it, there aren’t many jobs for young people in Maine. It’s a very relevant issue for students.”