GE Power & Water recently announced that its power generation technology at two facilities with highly efficient combined heat and power (CHP) systems have been recognized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with the ENERGY STAR CHP Award.
The facilities are as followss: Eastman Chemical Company’s Kingsport, Tennessee, industrial campus and Merck’s West Point, Pennsylvania. The CHP system at Eastman’s Kingsport site includes 17 boilers that produce steam to support manufacturing processes, meet the space heating/cooling needs of 550 buildings and drive 19 engines, including 17 GE steam turbine generators. At its Kingsport industrial campus—one of the largest chemical manufacturing sites in North America—Eastman manufactures specialty chemicals, fibers and plastics used to produce hundreds of products.
Merck’s CoGen3 CHP system at its West Point facility—a pharmaceutical and vaccine manufacturing, R&D and warehouse and distribution center—is powered by a 38–megawatt GE 6B heavy-duty gas turbine and recovers otherwise-wasted heat to produce steam to heat, cool and dehumidify approximately 7 million square feet of manufacturing, laboratory and office space.
CHP, also known as cogeneration, simultaneously generates electricity and thermal energy (heat) using a single, integrated system. By recovering and using heat typically wasted by the conventional production of electricity, CHP can give U.S. manufacturers a competitive edge by minimizing production costs, reducing carbon pollution and achieving total efficiencies (electrical and thermal) of up to 95 percent. GE provides a wide array of technologies capable of being configured as a CHP system, including reciprocating engines and gas turbines.
ABOUT ENERGY STAR CHP AWARDS
EPA awards the ENERGY STAR CHP Award to leaders who increase the nation’s electric generation efficiency through the development of highly efficient CHP systems. The award recognizes the importance of CHP as a way to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other pollutants while helping businesses become more competitive and profitable.