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Sommer expressed how thankful EKAE is for the arrangement. “The wastewater treatment facility provides 75% of our water,” Sommer says. “Without that water we may not be here because the city wouldn’t have been able to support our cooling needs.”

Sommer says plant managers interested in employing a CHP system such as theirs should first contact an engineering firm, such as ICM or CPT, to help reach efficiency goals.

POET Biorefinery

Although POET is immensely proud of their Energy Star Award, the motivation was never to gain bragging rights or glory. They simply had the same goal as countless other facilities: to produce ethanol more cost-effectively.

“The largest cost in operating an ethanol plant is feedstock, followed by energy costs,” explains Nathan Schock, director of public relations at POET. “We can’t use less feedstock because then we’d lose capacity; so we sought out to use less energy.”

They achieved their goal by installing a natural gas-fired turbine to generate the plant’s electricity. The energy needed to fire the boilers requires approximately 16% less fuel than typical on-site thermal generation and purchased electricity systems. The system reduces carbon dioxide emissions by an estimated 18,900 tons/year, the equivalent of removing the annual emissions from 3,100 vehicles.

Although POET’s Ashton facility was originally built with the turbine, made by Solar Turbines, Schock says it is possible that existing ethanol plants could retrofit their electric powered boilers to use heat generated from a turbine instead.

He recommends joining the EPA’s CHP program to gain helpful resources and contacts that can help you get the ball rolling in your plant’s quest to reach higher efficiencies.