The University of Iowa’s former president Bruce Harreld announced in the beginning of 2017 that the university would be coal-free by 2025. But, with an active power plant on campus, this initiative seemed nearly impossible.

However, the work being done may make this goal achievable.

Stratis Giannakouros, director of the Office of Sustainability and Environment at the UI, has been working to spearhead the initiative.

“We, as a university, determined several years ago that we wanted to remove coal from our facility for the health impacts,” Giannakouros said. “And we had a strategy of how to do that that has evolved over several years.”

Since the UI commenced its zero-coal goal in 2008, ambitious sustainability goals have been made. One was to pursue an audacious 40 percent renewable energy objective that would assist in the transition of the campus from a hefty use of fossil fuels like coal to an eco-friendlier use of biomass and other renewable energy sources.

“One option that some universities have gone to is using natural gas solely as an alternative. We elected not to do that, even though it tends to be very clean,” Giannakouros said. “The reason is that we have a massive health care system, and we cannot afford to have a power outage. That leaves us vulnerable. So, we will always maintain a diversity of fuel sources.”

According to the UI Utility System, the UI requires roughly the same amount of energy as 42,000 homes. Most of that energy has historically come from coal, a nonrenewable fossil fuel that is burned to create electricity in power plants.

Most of the coal utilized by the university is brought by rail from Wyoming, Illinois, and Kentucky, and then delivered to power plants, as of 2022.

Peter Thorne, a professor in the College of Public Health’s Department of Occupational and Environmental Health, focuses his research on the health impacts of climate change.

“Since the Industrial Revolution, the burning of coal has led to massive release of carbon dioxide along with toxic metals like mercury and organic compounds,” Thorne said. “Air pollutants released from coal-fired power plants are associated with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, such as asthma and heart attacks, cancer, and neurological disorders.”

Since 2008, the UI campus has reduced its use of coal by 60 percent. In its place, the university began using substitutions of energy sources, including growing locally sourced biomass and partnering with local farmers, as well as a study with Iowa State University and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, to develop a miscanthus energy crop — a grass that, when burned, produces a fuel efficiency of 35 to 45 percent.

Iowa is on track to plant 2,500 acres to produce 22,500 tons of sustainable and renewable fuel for the campus annually. This creates a dedicated energy crop alternative to traditional row cropping to provide a stable income to Iowa’s farmers.

Miscanthus is considered carbon neutral, meaning it has no net release of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, which is a direct cause of global warming.

In addition to miscanthus, the university is using oat hulls as a source of power for the main power plant on campus. Introduced in 2003, this public-private collaboration with Quaker Oats created a new market for an oat hull by-product. Burning oat hulls had considerable benefits to the environment as well as to human health. By utilizing a half-and-half oat hulls-coal mix, when compared to burning only coal, carbon dioxide emissions decreased by 40 percent.

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Over the first 10 years, oat hulls overrode 183,000 tons of coal and generated approximately $7.6 million in savings. In addition, oat hull usage displaced roughly 1,000 truckloads of coal per year, according to Facilities Management at the UI. When compared to burning only coal, co-firing with oat hulls reduced particulate matter by 90 percent, hazardous air pollutants fell by 41 percent, and metals including manganese, copper, nickel, and zinc decreased 51 percent, all reported by a study conducted by the UI Chemistry Department in 2015.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources has partnered with the UI on a landmark Provisionally Accredited Levee air quality permit agreement. Peter Zayudis is the air quality construction permit supervisor at the Department of Natural Resources.

“Air quality construction permits are valid for the life of the equipment or until the equipment is altered, modified or removed from service,” Zayudis said. “The [Department of Natural Resources] reviews and issues permits to ensure the proposed or altered equipment complies with state and federal air requirements. These requirements are established by the Clean Air Act to ensure public health and welfare.”

In addition to the UI’s plans to be coal-free by 2025, the city of Iowa City is working towards a greenhouse gas emissions target.

Iowa City’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan, updated in August of 2019, declared a climate crisis and described work to reduce carbon emissions by 45 percent by 2030, and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. Their 64-point-plan includes initiatives such as embracing electric vehicles and cycling, increasing recycling and composting, and reducing waste and consumption of material goods.

“By moving away from coal to cleaner and greener fuels, the UI is taking a meaningful step toward climate responsibility,” Thorne said. “With further progress toward renewable energy, enhanced sustainability, education on climate change, and net zero greenhouse gas emissions, the UI can join the ranks of other universities working to solve the climate crisis.”