While Eastern’s proposed Renewable Energy Center is still in the public meetings process, similar plants are already in place at colleges and universities around the country.

Honeywell International, the consulting firm that designed the proposed biomass gasification plant, has designed two similar plants, said company spokesman Aaron Parker.

“I found two other schools that are using technology similar to what we are proposing at Eastern Illinois University,” Parker said. “Those schools are Middlebury College (in Middlebury, Vt.) and the University of South Carolina (in Columbia, S.C.).”

Unlike the proposed Eastern plant, which would be built near the Lakewood subdivision, those plants are surrounded by campus buildings, representatives from both schools said.

Some Lakewood residents said they fear the biomass plant would bring heavy truck traffic to deliver the woodchips that fuel the plant.

Traffic has picked up in Middlebury from the college’s new plant, said Jack Byrne, director of sustainability integration at Middlebury.

“Yes, there is an increase in truck traffic,” Byrne said. “It’s certainly well within the capacity of the roads.”

Byrne added that, during winter months, the amount of wood required and the number of deliveries each day increases.

He dismissed concerns about noise from the biomass gasification process, saying the new plant is much quieter than the oil-burning boiler it is replacing.

“It actually is not as loud as the oil boiler and it’s primarily machinery noise (in the gasification system),” Byrne said.

He also said the new plant produces little smoke or smell.

“We have strict air quality requirements to meet and we have shown that we will (meet them),” Byrne said.

Students, faculty and Middlebury residents generally approve of the new plant and consider it a good step toward energy sustainability, he said.

“It’s … very popular,” Byrne said. “People feel very happy to know we are reducing our emissions and our need to (import fuel oil).”