Tecogen, a manufacturer of Combined Heat and Power (CHP) products, declared that the waste water treatment facility in Medina, New York will install a Tecogen 60 kW CHP system to generate better energy efficiency. A Green Infrastructure Grant has been awarded to the site. Environmental Facilities, who funds efficiency improvement, has administered the grant.
The waste water treatment plant consumes significant energy in the entire community. To overcome this issue, the Tecogen system will generate electricity, which will be supplied to the power grid and this will help to compensate the increased power consumption. The Tecogen system features an electric generator that is driven by an engine. Biogas, which is generated by treating waste sludge, will be used to fuel this engine. For biogas production, anaerobic digesters are used that need to be maintained at 100oF. The cogeneration process that traps heat from biogas combustion provides most of the required heat. Reduction in both natural gas and electricity expenditures related to the plant operations is expected to surpass $10,000 per year.
According to Peter Houseknecht, supervisor of public works for Medina, the community is turning eco-friendly. By installing the Tecogen CHP system in the waste water treatment plant, they will be able to produce a significant amount of energy from a byproduct resulting from the treatment process. Energy saving measures such as CHP in solar PV panels, efficient lighting upgrades and geothermal heat pumps will take the plant to a whole new level of efficiency.
The CEO of Larsen Engineers, Ram Shrivastava commented that the Tecogen CHP system provided a suitable solution for the site and was selected based on its reliability and local availability. Tecogen's technology is efficient even when it operates in partial load capacities. At present, the plant is making sufficient biogas to produce 40 kW of electricity.
The Tecogen system complies with Buy America standards.
Source: http://www.tecogen.com