A team of University of Iowa business students are partnering with the UI biomass fuel project to develop technical and operational requirements for a biomass energy supply and burning system. The project will help the university meet its 2020 sustainability goals for energy.

The project is part of a spring academic course required of all first-year students in the Tippie School of Management's full-time MBA program. The Tippie Business Solutions Center is designed to offer students real-life experience with real-life clients while also providing credit and professional feedback. Students enrolled in the course are divided into teams of 4-6 to work with 10 different clients.

One of those clients is UI Utilities & Energy Management, a department under Facilities Management. Students Michael Redmond, Ping Wu, Lisa Ferguson, Deepak Sehrawat, Nirosh Dhital, and Sehar Shah are researching different biomass options for the university power plant.

"By the end of the semester, our consulting team hopes to have a handful of qualified suppliers to help the Office of Sustainability and utilities department enter into negotiations to secure a contract and reach the renewable energy goal in the end," Redmond said.

The team hopes to bring in an outside supplier to supplement the current use of wood chips, oat hulls, and coal in the power plant along the river on Burlington St. However, Redmond said that is a challenge, as energy supply in the United States is a relatively new market. So far, the team has conducted an industry analysis, spoken with other universities working with biomass, and compiled a list of potential suppliers.

Read the full Iowa Now article to learn more about the Tippie Business Solutions Center.