Cogeneration

by Michael Bokor

Definition

Sustainability

• Capable of being continued with minimal long-term effect on the environment.

• In the terms of the 1987 Brundtland Report, sustainable development is development that: "Meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs."

Boiler plant information…

• The purpose of the Main Boiler House is to provide steam 24 hours a day to 32 buildings on campus and the Freshman Dorm area.

• The boiler plant uses natural gas and provides all the steam used on campus.

• The steam is used for heating,

air conditioning, and hot water. Air Compressor

Main Boiler House

Problem on campus…

• The boiler plant is very inefficient do to excess amounts of heat energy loss.

• The heating bill for the winter of 05-06 was more then 4 million dollars over budget.

• The price of the natural gas that R.P.I purchased has doubled in the last 5 years.

Boiler

Solution…

• Cogeneration - A process in which an industrial facility uses its waste energy to produce heat or electricity.

• Cogeneration is an energy-efficient, environmentally-friendly method of producing electricity (power), steam and/or hot water at the same time, in one process, with one fuel.

Cogeneration (combined heat and power or CHP)

• is the use of a power station to simultaneously generate both heat and electricity.

• Conventional power plants emit the heat created as a byproduct of electricity generation into the environment through cooling towers, as flue gas, or by other means.

• CHP captures the excess heat for domestic or industrial heating purposes.

History… Hot-air cogeneration, which is found

in modern combustion turbines, can be traced back to medieval smoke

jacks.

Steam cogeneration was first applied to the steam jack, which appeared in the early seventeenth century.

By the late eighteenth century, waste steam from manufacturing processes was used to power steam engines, and the hot condenser water was used again for other process

purposes.

a smoke jack, a device that took advantage of the rising heat in the flu to turn a vane, which in turn rotated the spit via a simple train of gears and a chain. Leonardo da Vinci illustrated a smoke jack in his sketchbook in the late 1400's.

Bailey's Patent Steam Jack1793 America's first steam turbine This spit-turning device, or "jack," may well be the first steam turbine built and used in America. Used to turn a fireplace spit, it may also represent the earliest non-industrial application of steam power.

Cogeneration solutions simply reduce waste, with only 10%-15% losses, compare that with the 55% or more using traditional generation methods and it is clear that cogeneration uses fuel more efficiently.

How it will help…

• Estimates are that the boiler plant is 50% efficient at capturing heat for use around the campus.

• Instituting a cogeneration plant along side the boiler plant could rise that efficiency rate to around 70-90%, thereby saving a lot of wasted energy.

Contributing to prevention of global warming…

• A cogeneration system utilizes exhaust heat which is dumped in generating electricity, and so makes the most of the limited resources.

• Because it reduces the amount of exhausting greenhouse gas such as CO2 (Carbon Dioxide) and NOx(Nitrogen Oxides), it can contribute a lot to prevention of global warming. 

Proven technology…• Over 150 colleges & universities

around the nation have cogeneration plants.

• M.I.T cogeneration plant has reduced emissions by 45% or 13,000 car roundtrips into Cambridge per day!

• University of Oregon cogeneration plant produces 30% of the university’s electricity from the byproduct of steam production.

• University of Maryland has installed a 26-MW Cogen system that it says saves the institution $6 million per year in energy costs.

References

• http://www.answers.com/cogeneration&r=67 4/16/06

• http://www.standardaeroenergy.com/main/cogeneration.htm 4/16/06

• http://www.rpi.edu/~bortonh/PVTracker/OHtalk.html 4/16/06

• http://www.poly.rpi.edu/article_view.php3?view=441&part=1 4/16/06

• http://cogen.mit.edu/ 4/18/06

• http://www.osu.edu/osu/newsrel/Archive/00-07-07_Trustees:_Construction_Projects.html 4/18/06

• http://www.schmitt-enertec.com/cogeneration/what.htm 4/22/06