The wood-fueled boiler system that heats Houston Middle School and High School is nearly 30 years old.

"Right now, we get sawdust from local sawmills," said Houston School District Superintendent Dan Vandiver.

Last winter, the district spent about $2,000 on sawdust to heat three buildings, while propane to heat just one other building cost $15,000.

"We're in the process right now of doing work to connect it to the boiler, because we had excess heat last winter," said Vandiver.

It's a boiler system similar to what six school districts in Missouri will get nearly $1 million each to install.

"It would be almost identical to what you're seeing. It would just be more modern, up to date, than this," said John Tuttle, a Forestry Field Programs supervisor with the Missouri Department of Conservation.

Picture a computerized system that would burn local renewable fuel.

"It creates the jobs at home. Your fuel is being produced in county, and being burnt in county," said Tuttle.

Houston's boiler system burns about one semi-load of sawdust per week during the winter but the new system will burn wood chips instead, because they're not as much in demand by other industries.

"There are several large companies making charcoal briquets, and basically all the sawdust is being burnt, so there's a lot of competition for sawdust. There's no competition for this small-diameter chip coming from the woods," said Tuttle.

The wood chips would come from unhealthy or small-diameter trees in forested areas that need to be thinned out.

"We have it in Missouri, where we have too dense of a stand of trees, and it ends up making all the trees unhealthy," Tuttle said.

It's a push for healthy sustainable forests, and cost savings for schools.

"This could not come at a better time, in my opinion, for schools. You could save 25 percent, maybe $25,000 or $30,000 a year," said Tuttle.

Houston is planning to apply for the grant, so it could possibly heat an elementary and a vocational building also with a wood-fueled system. Schools in 24 counties are eligible to apply. The deadline is Oct. 23.

For a copy of the MDC’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Act Grant Application and Federal Financial Assistance Award for Missouri Fuels for Schools,

click here.

For more information on the Fuels for Schools program and grants, contact John Tuttle at John.Tuttle@mdc.mo.gov.
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Missouri Department of Conseration News Release:

MDC offering Fuels for Schools grants to eligible schools

JEFFERSON CITY MO – The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC), in cooperation with the USDA Forest Service, is offering grants of almost $1 million each to public schools in select Missouri counties for six “Fuels for Schools” projects. The grants are being funded through The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

“Fuels for Schools will assist public schools in heavily forested areas of southern Missouri to install and operate boiler systems that use woody biomass from local public and private forest land to heat and/or cool their facilities,” explained grant administrator John Tuttle, Forestry Field Programs supervisor for the MDC. “This technology should help reduce dependence on fossil fuels, reduce energy costs for schools, create or retain local jobs and support healthy forests and the state’s forest industry.”

Tuttle noted that Missouri’s forest products industry generates more than $5 billion in economic activity each year and supports more than 30,000 jobs.

“The Fuels for Schools projects will help create a stronger market for woody material historically considered waste, such as unhealthy or small-diameter trees and wood debris left from logging,” he said. “These forest products currently have little or no commercial value so the Fuels for Schools projects can provide micro-markets for wood chips produced from them.”

He added that the projects also will support forest health, a key part of the MDC’s mission, by making it economical to thin overcrowded forest stands and remove diseased and insect-infested trees.

Tuttle noted that the projects also will serve as examples to other schools, businesses and government agencies throughout Missouri that may be interested in wood-fueled energy systems.

Tuttle said that similar efforts in other states have proved successful. Missouri’s projects will be based on the Fuels for Schools and Beyond program. This is a partnership between the USDA Forest Service’s State & Private Forestry program, the State Foresters of Montana, North Dakota, Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming, and the Bitter Root Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D) Area, Inc., to promote and facilitate the use of forest biomass waste for heating, cooling and power in public and private buildings.

According to the Fuels for Schools and Beyond website (www.fuelsforschools.info), “In general, fuel cost savings for projects that have replaced natural gas boiler systems have averaged at 25% while facilities replacing fuel oil systems have enjoyed savings of 50-75%.”

The MDC is mailing grant solicitations to public schools in counties selected as the most heavily forested ones in the state: Barry, Bollinger, Butler, Carter, Crawford, Dent, Douglas, Howell, Iron, Madison, Oregon, Ozark, Perry, Phelps, Pulaski, Reynolds, Ripley, Shannon, Stone, Taney, Texas, Washington, Wayne and Wright.

Schools will have approximately six weeks to complete their applications and submit them to the MDC for consideration. Tuttle noted that, since the grants are funded through the ARRA, there is a very aggressive timeline to get the projects completed.

A multi-agency selection committee will rank grant applications. The rankings will be based on each school district’s economic needs, how dependent it is on the forest products industry, its ability to implement the project quickly, its proximity to public and private forest land and its partnerships with other public entities that could benefit from the biomass energy system.