Vermont Business Magazine The City Council's Transportation, Energy, and Utilities Committee (TEUC) on Tuesday night discussed the third-party Velerity report at its meeting. This report was envisioned in a City Council Resolution from November 2023 to help Burlington Electric Department (BED) identify ways to improve efficiency, reduce stack emissions (carbon and particulates), and promote innovation at McNeil.
The RFP for this report, as well as the selection of Velerity and its scope of work, were approved by the Burlington Electric Commission, the TEUC, and the full City Council. The final report analyzed a number of technologies, alternative fuels, and efficiency improvements that could be made at McNeil, with an eye toward environmental benefits, as well as affordability and reliability for ratepayers.
The report analyzed several processes, including using additives like ammonia (efficient but expensive) and renewable gas (the plant is able to burn methane and other fuels but currently does not as part of its 100% renewable energy designation).
The report found that wood pyrolysis (gasification of wood chips into synthetic gas) represents an opportunity to significantly increase the electric production efficiency while simultaneously reducing carbon emissions. It would also cost slightly less.
• Pyrolysis is a thermal process that decomposes the wood molecules and embedded moisture using a high temperature in the absence of oxygen. The process is not a combustion process and does not emit CO2. Depending on the temperature and the use of a catalyst, pyrolysis produces biochar and a syngas. The biochar can be sold into markets as a soil additive for agricultural purposes while the syngas can be used to produce electricity.
• Syngas is fed into a combined cycle gas turbine including a combustion turbine and a steam turbine, resulting in high efficiency electricity generation of approximately 60%.
• The combustion of the syngas with atmosphere does produce nitrous oxides which are mitigated in the design of the turbine to meet EPA requirements. The exhaust gases could potentially be fed into the McNeil existing NOx capture system to further reduce NOx emissions.
• The pyrolysis system would benefit from continuous operation as a baseload system for Burlington.
• The pyrolysis reduces carbon emissions for the McNeil site in two ways:
- Biochar contains carbon that is removed from the process
- The doubling of efficiency reduces emissions per unit of electricity generated.
Pyrolysis benefits from having a high efficiency as well as being able to sell the biochar output to generate additional revenues
Darren Springer, BED General Manager, shared the following statement about the report:
“Today's (November 25, 2025) release of the Velerity report marks an important moment for our efforts toward a just transition for the McNeil Generating Station, including our journey toward improved efficiency and reduced stack emissions. BED is especially interested in exploring several options identified in the report as being potentially cost-effective at a high level. The report found that the organic rankine cycle (ORC) turbine, carbon capture, and wood pyrolysis technologies would provide tangible emissions reductions and, in some scenarios, significantly cut wood fuel consumption. BED also is exploring the opportunity to locate utility-scale energy storage at the McNeil site, building on the current University of Vermont solar test center located at McNeil and the use of the McNeil site to support non-profit Village Hydroponics’ indoor agriculture facility. The BED team looks forward to digging in further on the analysis and evaluating the technologies identified in the report, and we encourage our community to review the report as well.”
11.25.2025. Burlington, VT – burlingtonelectric.com
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