Got Biological Waste? Waste Heat? Get CHP!

Photo courtesy of HARC, a research hub providing independent analysis on energy, air, and water, which operates the technical assistance program (TAP) for DOE’s CHP program for the U.S. Southwest region.

Do you have access to biomass or waste heat resources, such as food processing waste, excess industrial heat, landfill gas, or farm animal manure? Are you looking to improve energy efficiency, reduce emissions and improve power resilience?

If so and you can answer…. “yes” to least two of the following questions, your plant may be a good candidate for combined heat and power (CHP).

• Do you have thermal loads including steam, hot water, chilled water, or hot air?
• Are you interested in reducing your facility’s impact on the environment?
• Are you concerned about power reliability? Is there a substantial financial impact to your business if the power goes out for 1 hour? For 5 minutes?
• Are you concerned about the impact of current or future energy costs on your business?
• Do you pay more than $0.06/kWh on average for electricity (including generation, transmission, and distribution)?
• Do you anticipate a facility expansion or new construction project within the next 3 to 5 years?
• Do you expect to replace, upgrade, or retrofit central plant equipment within the next 3 to 5 years?
• Does your facility have an existing central plant?
• Does your facility operate for more than 3,000 hours per year?
• Have you already implemented energy efficiency measures and still have high energy costs?

U.S. DOE’s CHP Assistance

The U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) CHP Technical Assistance Partnerships (CHP TAPs) program promotes and assists in transforming the market for CHP, waste-heat-to-power, and district energy technologies and concepts throughout the U.S. The program offers technical assistance on CHP technologies to industrial and other facilities through its seven regional centers (see Figure 1).

The program includes assisting project development from initial screening to installation. Its mission is to help regional businesses and communities reduce their energy costs, improve efficiency, and strengthen their energy resiliency and reliability through the use of CHP.

The CHP TAPs offer technical assistance to facilities impacted by the Boiler MACT regulation.

The program’s CHP TAP’s provide unbiased, fuel-neutral and technology-neutral resources and expertise to help industrial and other large energy users consider and evaluate CHP for their facilities.

Figure 1:
The U.S. Department of Energy offers technical assistance on implementing combined heat and power (CHP) to industrial plants through its seven regional technical centers. The CHP TAPs offer technical assistance to facilities impacted by the Boiler MACT regulation.

Four-step Project Development

1. CHP Screening / Site Qualification. CHP can provide enormous benefits to large energy users, utilities, communities, and other stakeholders, but it is not the right fit for every application. Program experts help you determine whether CHP is worth a closer look for your facility, both technically and financially.The first step is talking through the screening questions (above), combined with a first-cut qualification assessment of the economic and technical viability of CHP at your site, using basic site information. If you answered “yes” to the screening questions, you have initiated the screening step.Administrators then help you evaluate whether energy costs, thermal loads, site operating hours, and other key site characteristics show potential for a good, cost-effective CHP project. If the screening and site qualification suggest good CHP potential a more detailed feasibility analysis follows:
2. Feasibility Study. This analysis is based on utility bills from the previous year, information on daily and seasonal electric and thermal load profiles, and insights into site-specific issues such as expansion plans or power reliability problems that may factor into CHP system selection or sizing.Different CHP technology or system options may be evaluated with budgetary pricing and economic analysis developed for each option. The analysis’ results provide a sense of the estimated economic, operational, reliability, energy security, and other benefits that CHP might offer your facility.
3. Advanced Analysis. The U.S. DOE Southwest CHP TAP offers additional technical fee-based assistance  to help CHP projects succeed, including an unbiased, technical, third-party review of vendor proposals and engineering-grade analyses; customized presentations for upper management; project profiles of similar successful projects; and information on financing, grants, and incentives; regulatory considerations, and updates on new technology or operational advancements that could affect project economics.
4. Implementation. Finally, if a CHP system is indicated, the CHP’s TAP assists with system procurement, operation, and maintenance.

A CHP can potentially lower your energy costs, as well as improve power quality, and resilience. There is considerable opportunity in your region, and the U.S. in general, for manufacturers to have more sustainable operations using CHP.

Defined: Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems, also known as cogeneration, generate electricity and useful thermal energy in a single, integrated system. CHP is not a technology, but an approach to applying technologies.—ACEEE.