Bradford University is set to install a state-of-the-art biomass boiler in a bid to reduce its carbon footprint.

The £327,000 unit will replace three gas-fired boilers and save about 500 tonnes of carbon each year. Bradford will be one of the first higher education institutions in the country to install such technology.

It will be housed at the back of the university's J B Priestley Library and funded by the university and £147,000 from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).

The institution consumes more than 47 million kilowatts of energy each year at a cost of £2.5 million, releasing about 13,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide. It is estimated the boilers will save about £6,000 per year at 2008 gas prices.

University energy officer Rob Bradley said: "The Government has announced it will cap building-related carbon emissions, and from 2010 large organisations such as ourselves will be legally required to buy and sell carbon to meet these mandatory targets. The biomass plant will assist in mitigating costs arising from this legislation.

"We anticipate that the biomass plant will save around 500 tonnes of carbon per annum. We are also in negotiations with a Bradford-based supplier of wood chip and we predict that the unit cost of this form of biomass will be below what the university currently pays for natural gas.

"As well as installing the biomass plant, we have taken the opportunity to create an energy and recycling centre at the back of the J B Priestley library.

"The road infrastructure needed to be improved to allow for the safe delivery of the fuel to the boiler, therefore it made sense to create a cost-effective central recycling facility for the university.

"This will have the added benefit of improving what is currently an unattractive area and making recycling more effective and focussed."

Biomass boilers use wood products to produce heat. Biomass is classed as a renewable energy source and is considered carbon neutral as the carbon dioxide released during combustion was absorbed by the trees when they were growing.

Engineers in the university's estates team have chosen wood chip rather than wood pellet to fire the boilers as it can be sourced locally, lowering the carbon footprint on delivering the fuel.

The boiler, which should be installed by September, will have a viewing platform to allow people to see it working.

Russell Smith, estates manager for engineering at the University of Bradford, said: "It is a real feather in our cap to be one of the first universities in the sector to use large-scale biomass, and this is probably one of the largest step changes in the reduction of building-emitted carbon that the university can make.

"As part of our Ecoversity programme, we are committed to managing our carbon emissions and energy consumption, and we are in the process of developing some extremely challenging targets to improve on those already imposed by central Government."