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Nexus has been meeting the needs of commercial greenhouse growers for over 35 years. We have built our reputation on structures of uncompromising quality and the best customer service in the industry.

Nexus has a broad range of structures to meet your individual growing needs. All of our structures can be customized to provide growers with the size, covering, heating, cooling, and controls to provide the best possible environment for your crop.

The primary purpose of the greenhouse facility is to serve as a demonstration greenhouse showcasing new technologies in “real world” conditions for economic development. Designed by the Bioresource Engineering Department of Cook College, Rutgers University and built by the County of Burlington’s Board of Chosen Freeholders, the greenhouse has numerous environmental technologies incorporated into its design. These technologies serve to give the greenhouse a soft footprint on the environment. The greenhouse has been operational since 1996. It is one of the largest research greenhouses in the U.S. with over 46,000 square feet of greenhouse production space and 10,000 square feet of support buildings.

Some of the noteworthy features incorporated into the research facility include:

• Sophisticated computerized environmental controls for 5 separate zones that monitor, control, and record the temperature, light level, humidity and carbon dioxide level for each zone while minimizing energy usage
• Heated floors throughout that serve as a thermal storage device and places the heat where it is needed, in the crop
• High Intensity Lighting to supplement natural sunlight and extend the daylegnth during the lower-light periods of the year (September through April)
• Energy curtains that reduce heat loss, during the night, in winter and reduce the cooling loads, during the day, in summer
• High density polyethylene liners under the greenhouse floors to prevent irrigation water from leaving the greenhouse and going into the ground
• Double-wall acrylic sidewalls to reduce heat loss through the sides of the greenhouse
• High pressure fog cooling system
• Dual-fueled boiler for both landfill gas and natural gas
• Landfill gas fired microturbines and waste heat recovery system
• Automated rolling benches or “Dutch trays” that allow the crop to be brought to the workers in the headhouse and also allow for greater space utilization in the greenhouse
• Recirculating hydroponic irrigation system
• Glass and double layer polyethylene roofing in identical sections to allow for comparison of crop production under both covers

Research at the greenhouse focuses on the economic and crop production impacts of the new technologies. The results are then made available for greenhouse growers (and those considering getting into greenhouse production) to evaluate.

For more photos please visit our online photo gallery.

Prepared feedstock (<10% moisture and 1-2 mm particle size) is fed into the bubbling fluid-bed reactor, which is heated to 450–500 °C in the absence of oxygen. This is lower than conventional pyrolysis systems and, therefore, has the benefit of higher overall energy conversion efficiency. The feedstock flashes and vaporizes like throwing droplets of water onto a hot frying pan. The resulting gases pass into a cyclone where solid particles, char, are extracted. The gases enter a quench tower where they are quickly cooled using BioOil already made in the process

The BioOil condenses and falls into the product tank, while non-condensable gases are returned to the reactor to maintain process heating. The entire reaction from injection to quenching takes only two seconds.

100% of the feedstock is utilized in the process to produce BioOil and char. As the non-condensable gases are used as energy to run the process, nothing is wasted and no waste is produced. The uncondensed, flammable gases are re-circulated to fuel approximately 75% of the energy needed by the pyrolysis process.

Three products are produced: BioOil (60-75% by weight), char (15-20% wt.) and non-condensable gases (10-20% wt.). Yields vary depending on the feedstock composition. BioOil and char are commercial products and non-condensable gases are recycled and supply a major part of the energy required by the process. No waste is produced in the Dynamotive process

A fourth product, BioOil Plus, can be produced by adding back the separated char into the BioOil, in a finely ground form of about 8 microns in size.

We have now built a unique pilot-scale reactor that uses a hot sand medium (called a fluidized-bed reactor) to convert perennial grasses to bio-oil and have now tested the reactor on switchgrass. The reactor was able to use switchgrass as a feedstock and produce a quantity of bio-oil that was 60% of the weight of the switchgrass fed into the reactor. We tested the composition and fuel properties of the produced liquid and found that the energy content was about the same as the parent switchgrass but the density was more than 2.5 X greater.