# @chapelboronews on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/DE2gFKku_su
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/25990989-chapelboronews-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/legacy-do/a0ca02039c407db4dcda1b72b0a64a1475e33c35a954d502746c605fa383a444.jpg
- **Posted:** 2025-01-15T15:39:35.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Chapelboro.com (@chapelboronews) — https://gondola.cc/chapelboronews

## Caption

UNC has long used its cogeneration plant on West Cameron Avenue to create steam to heat, cool and power buildings on its campus – burning coal as a key part of its fuel source. The university has also long explored alternatives to burn and is currently asking permission from the state to test a new option.

But that fuel, pellets, has some questions surrounding it, with the greater Chapel Hill community set to ask those at a public hearing on Thursday.

The request for pellet testing is just the latest step as UNC continues to scale back its coal consumption at the cogeneration plant by using alternative fuel sources. The university’s Sustainable Carolina department reports coal use is down 67% since 2007 and combustion emissions have subsequently dropped 38%. The campus and community’s reliance on the cogeneration plant make it difficult to fully or immediately transition away from coal, and the lack of an obvious physical – and reliable – fuel source led UNC to overshoot former Chancellor Holden Thorp’s pledge to stop burning coal by 2020.

The 12-month test period UNC is asking for would not be without its risks. While some emissions would fall compared to the plant’s current fuel mix, UNC and the DEQ say burning the pellets is expected to increase nitrogen oxide and carbon monoxide levels. Additionally, the pellets contain a small amount of per‐ and polyfluoroalkyl substances – better known as PFAS or forever chemicals. In its permit application, UNC called the trace amounts found by Convergen Energy “negligible,” with an early analysis projecting the Cameron Avenue facility would emit just more than one pound of PFAS each year. The university would also regularly monitor the PFAS levels alongside Convergen’s own examinations of the pellets before they are distributed from Wisconsin. But the chemicals’ effects are still being studied and it’s unclear how they could affect humans through emissions compared to water, where they are currently facing regulation by the EPA.

Full story on Chapelboro.com
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#coal #pelletburning #ncenvironment #cogeneration #cogenerationplant

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## Tags

pelletburning, coal, cogenerationplant, ncenvironment, cogeneration

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