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Rural school district’s new biomass burner may lower fuel costs, reduce pollution and give local farmers a market for a product

Benton’s hot new energy idea

By Rory Sweeney rsweeney@timesleader.com
Staff Writer

BENTON – Rest assured, Gary Powlus is aware of the incongruity.

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Benton Area School District Superintendent Gary Powlus, left, and facilities manager Jeff Kelsey with the school district’s new biomass heating system situated between the high school and elementary school.

PETE G. WILCOX photos/THE TIMES LEADER

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Benton Area School District Superintendent Gary Powlus, left, holds a grass pellet that is the fuel used in the school district’s new biomass heating system. Looking on is Jeff Kelsey, facilities manager.

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His tiny school district – all 760 students of it – on the cutting edge of the green-energy movement?

Fielding inquiries from much larger institutions from around the country?

Hosting waves of people making the pilgrimage to the middle of nowhere to see this shiny, new contraption down the street from his office?

“We knew that we would be a showcase model,” said the Benton Area School District superintendent of the $1.98 million biomass burner his district has built, a machine so new that there’s no dust yet to wipe off it. “This little project in little, tiny Benton has taken off and become known.”

There are other heating systems that burn biomass like wood, corn or grass, but according to Powlus, the system installed to heat his district’s total of three buildings is perhaps the first in the world versatile enough to switch feedstocks. The old oil-fired boilers were even kept as backups.

That flexibility will allow the district to take advantage of market fluctuations as they occur, but more important, it frees the district from escalating oil prices. While it’s unclear yet what the district stands to save, estimates are as high as $120,000 annually. Other organizations burning wood chips have reported even better results.

Additionally, the district estimates it will reduce annual oil consumption by at least 48,000 gallons and air pollution by at least 88 percent.

Granted, as alternative energy goes, a hot-water heating system isn’t nearly as attractive as an array of solar panels, but that’s being superficial. What gives Benton’s project the potential to be revolutionary is the opportunity it creates to stimulate the local economy.

As rural as any school district, Benton is surrounded by farmland – thousands of acres, actually. If those farmers can be convinced to grow fuel for the school, they can make their livelihood by supplying a product that helps the school save money and keep their taxes lower. “In my opinion, what sold me is we can save money and help the environment, and I know people in our community feel the same way,” Powlus said.

It was that combination of a district needing a new heating system and its main industry needing a new market that attracted a pair of state environmental specialists to Benton. Ryan Koch and Scott Singer, both U.S. Department of Agriculture Natural Resources Conservation Service employees, pitched the idea by touting a machine that was being developed to turn biomass into burnable pellets. Pelletizing the grass meant it could be transported more cost effectively.

After selling the district on the potential savings and economic boon, Koch and Singer helped shepherd the project to completion by landing $700,000 in state grant money. “If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t have gotten the grant that we did,” Powlus said.

Still, after all the work and publicity, a nagging question remains to be answered when the system fires up this winter: “If you don’t get the grants, is it economically feasible?” Singer said. “We’re trying to answer that.”

Rory Sweeney, a Times Leader staff writer, may be reached at 970-7418.