The Department of Facilities Services is currently working on converting the main fuel source for the Medford/Somerville campus to natural gas in an effort to reduce the university's carbon emissions.
The university will switch its energy source from number six fuel oil, otherwise known as bunker C or residual fuel oil, to natural gas, considered a cleaner-burning fuel.
Construction to accommodate the switch is on track to be completed by the end of October, according to Director of Facilities Technical Services and Tufts Energy Manager Betsy Isenstein.
Changes involve infrastructural improvements and the installation of additional equipment to support the volume of natural gas being used and allow for the burning of gas at the uphill central heating plant located between Dowling and East Halls.
The uphill central heating plant serves much of the main campus, Vice President for Operations Dick Reynolds said. All buildings serviced by the plant will now be heated by natural gas.
After modifications, the plant will have two sources of fuel: natural gas and oil number 2, otherwise known as heating oil, which will be used as backup in case Facilities runs into any difficulties with the natural gas source, according to Reynolds.
National Grid, the company that provides Tufts' electricity, completed construction on Sept. 28 to replace a portion of the gas main on Boston Avenue, enabling it to contain natural gas. A gas service from the main on Boston Avenue up to the plant will be implemented in the next week or so, Isenstein said.
Recent drops in prices for natural gas make this project affordable and the choice of fuel makes the decision environmentally sound, Isenstein noted.
"It's not only the cleaner burning fuels as much as far as emissions is concerned, but it's also a cleaner fuel in the [aforementioned] plant, and plant workers are not having to deal with oil," Isenstein said. "[Natural gas] makes plant maintenance and operation easier, smoother, cleaner."
Environmental Studies Program Director Colin Orians raised concerns about the extraction of natural gas.
"While natural gas definitely reduces our carbon footprint, the extraction of natural gas can cause other pollution problems," Orians told the Daily in an email. "I think it is important to know where our gas comes from. If it is leading to environmental destruction in, say, Pennsylvania, I would not be too pleased."
The change in fuel source for the uphill central heating plant was in part prompted by the discovery of issues with the existing tanks during a power outage early last semester.
"We've known that we needed to make a switch for a while," Reynolds said. "We had an outage in February or March and we discovered that we had some leaks in some of the tanks."
Isenstein does not foresee any problems with the new natural gas source.
"Historically, if you look at the price of gas verses the prices of fuel, gas is considered premium and much more expensive [than oil]," she said. "In the past couple of years I'd say that that's flip-flopped, and now gas is much more affordable, so that made [converting] the right thing to do."
Isenstein added that the change is in keeping with a recent trend on campus to move buildings to natural gas.
"I would say that our trend over the years has been to convert facilities to gas as it became feasible to do, so this is perhaps the largest [conversion]," she said. "It's not necessarily a new idea."
The construction will be completed once a few final parts are delivered, Isenstein noted.
"This is an exciting project for us," she said. "We're looking forward to operating under these new conditions."
