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U.S. Department of Energy Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy

    OIT Names Top Partners, Technologies

    March 1, 2000

    Joe Ponteri, Del Raymond, Alzeta Corp. receive inaugural OIT awards

    OIT's Customer Day was the setting for its first ever "Partner of the Year" and "Technology of the Year" awards. The award winners, chosen by an outside panel from nominations provided by OIT staff, represent the very best achievements and contributions from literally hundreds of OIT partners and supported technologies.

    The selection panel helped narrow the list to three outstanding finalists in each category, with the winners announced from this select group at Customer Day ceremonies. A tie vote for Partner of the Year resulted in two winners in this category. OIT plans to make the awards an annual ritual at Expo, Customer Day or similar events.

    Following are descriptions of award winners and finalists for Partner of the Year and Technology of the Year:

    Winners - "OIT Partner of the Year"

    There was a tie between Joseph Ponterri, Global Metal Technologies, Inc., and Delmar Raymond, Weyerhaeuser.

    Joseph Ponterri
    Mr. Ponterri is President and CEO of Global Metal Technologies, Inc., the parent company of Lester Precision Die Casting. Mr. Ponterri is a committed partner in the Department of Energy's Metal Casting Industry of the Future initiative. Through Industries of the Future, the Department of Energy's Office of Industrial Technologies works with the most energy-intensive industries, including metal casting, to cost-share pre-competitive technology RD&D.

    Because of Mr. Ponterri's vision and leadership, the Lester Precision Die Casting facility exemplifies what can be achieved through industry/government partnerships. Many of the technologies resulting from Metal Casting Industry of the Future research have been implemented at the facility and are currently saving Lester an estimated 5 billion Btus/yr. Wider application of these technologies throughout the facility has the potential to save an estimated 30 billion Btus/yr. Mr. Ponterri demonstrated his commitment to achieving national energy efficiency goals by showcasing the technologies at Lester in November, 1999.

    Delmar Raymond
    Mr. Raymond, of Weyerhaeuser, has been involved with the Industries of the Future program since its inception. He has been a pioneer in championing and developing the forest products vision, Agenda 2020, a strategic planning document that describes where the industry will need to be in 20 years to be competitive. Mr. Raymond is currently a co-chair of the Chief Technology Officers Committee, which guides the implementation of the forest products vision.

    The forest products vision identified biomass and black liquor gasification as a high priority area for near term demonstration. Mr. Raymond was instrumental in pulling together government and industrial support for the "Gasification Initiative." The end result of this effort was a $14 million FY2000 appropriation to run a solicitation to demonstrate biomass and black liquor gasification technologies. When successfully implemented these technologies could reduce fossil-based energy production by 1.5 quad per year and save 30 million metric tons of carbon per year by 2020.

    Finalist - "OIT Partner of the Year"

    Gunnar Hovstadius
    Mr. Hovstadius, of ITT Flygt, has partnered with OIT since 1994. His enthusiasm in working with OIT has been steadfast from the beginning. Mr. Hovstadius primarily works with the Motor Challenge program, now Best Practices. Mr. Hovstadius has been a tireless advocate of setting forth a vision and roadmap to enable the Industries of the Future to reap more than $2 billion in annual cost savings. Some of his other contributions to OIT's efforts include initiating two Motor Challenge showcase demonstrations in 1995, helping to create a regional initiative to promote motor and pump systems that trained 1,000 people, helping to instruct an additional 2,000 people on pump system optimization techniques.

    Winner- "OIT Technology of the Year"

    High Temperature Radiant Burner Alzeta Corporation
    OIT sponsored the creation of a high temperature radiant burner so that the high efficiency, low emission, even heating benefits of this technology could be used in higher temperature industrial heating applications. For this project, Alzeta identified a high temperature material that can be incorporated into earlier burner formulations at different levels, the highest for the most demanding applications, the lowest for more conventional boiler applications. This technology is truly a success as it is now incorporated into 5000 units per year.

    The burner's four commercial applications include:

    • an award winning VOC destruction system
    • a high efficiency boiler system
    • SOGNO, a high efficiency generally residential heater and hot water heater
    • Pyrocore radiant burners

    Finalists- "OIT Technology of the Year"

    Novel Membrane-Based Process for Producing Lactate Esters NTEC-Versol, Inc., Argonne National Laboratories, Archer Daniels Midland (ADM)
    This process permits low-cost synthesis of high-purity esters from fermentation-derived organic acids and their salts. To date, work has focused on the production of ethyl lactate and other lactate esters. This process uses proprietary advanced fermentation, membrane separation, and chemical conversion technologies to convert renewable carbohydrate feedstocks into lactate esters. These esters are environmentally benign solvents that provide a direct replacement for petroleum-derived organic and chlorinated solvents, many of which are toxic or hazardous. Such solvents are widely used as cleaners, degreasers and product ingredients in such industries as electronics manufacturing, adhesives, paints and other coatings, printing, de-inking, and textile manufacturing.

    The ester solvents have the potential to replace about 80% of the 3.5 million tons of solvents used annually in the United States. The esters are also "platform" building blocks for producing polymers and large-volume oxychemicals, such as propylene glycol and acrylic acid. The process requires little energy input, is highly efficient and selective, and eliminates the large volumes of salt waste (gypsum) produced by conventional processes.

    Waste-Minimizing Plating Barrel Whyco Technologies, Inc.
    Whyco Technologies, Inc., has developed an innovative plating barrel used in the plating of metal parts. This new barrel employs an innovative thin-walled construction, differing from the traditional thick-wall design previously required to provide adequate structural integrity. The thinner wall provides increased flow-through, less clogging, and extended component life leading to 16% energy savings and 40% increased productivity over traditional barrels.

    To date, more than 395 of these plating barrels are being used throughout the country with an estimated annual savings of more than 150 billion Btu. Assuming 50% of the estimated 100,000 plating barrels currently in use in the United States are replaced by the year 2020, the projected energy savings will be more than 19 trillion Btu/year.