CHP R&D Project Descriptions

The CHP R&D project portfolio includes advanced reciprocating engine systems (ARES), packaged CHP systems, high-value applications, fuel-flexible CHP, and demonstrations of these technologies. Project fact sheets and short project descriptions are provided below:

Advanced Reciprocating Engine Systems

• Advanced Reciprocating Engine Systems (ARES)
  
  The ARES program is designed to promote separate, but parallel engine development among the major stationary, gaseous fueled engine manufacturers in the United States.

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Packaged CHP Systems

• Combined Heat and Power Integrated with Burners for Packaged Boilers
  
  CMCE, Inc., in collaboration with Altex Technologies Corporation, will develop the Boiler Burner Energy System Technology (BBEST), a CHP assembly of a gas-fired simple-cycle 100 kilowatt (kW) microturbine and a new ultra-low NOx gas-fired burner, to increase acceptance of small CHP systems. The technology will improve reliability while reducing costs and the need for maintenance.

• Flexible CHP System with Low NOx, CO and VOC Emissions
  
  The Gas Technology Institute, in collaboration with Cannon Boiler Works, Integrated CHP Systems Corp., Capstone Turbine Corporation, and Johnston Boiler Company, will develop a Flexible Combined Heat and Power (FlexCHP) system that incorporates a supplemental Ultra-Low-NOx (ULN) burner into a 65 kW microturbine and a heat recovery boiler. The ULN burner is expected to help the CHP system meet stringent emissions criteria and improve overall system efficiency in a cost-effective manner.

• High Efficiency Microturbine with Integral Heat Recovery
  
  Capstone Turbine Corporation, in collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory and NASA Glenn Research Center, will develop a clean, cost-effective 370 kW microturbine with 42% net electrical efficiency and 85% total CHP efficiency. The microturbine technology will maximize usable exhaust energy and achieve ultra-low emissions levels.

• Low-Cost Packaged Combined Heat and Power System with Reduced Emissions
  
  Cummins Power Generation, in collaboration with Cummins Engine Business Unit, will develop a flexible, packaged CHP system that produces 330 kW of electrical power output and 410 kW of thermal output while increasing efficiency and reducing emissions and cost. The project will result in the highest-efficiency and lowest-emissions system for a CHP project less than 1 megawatt (MW) in size.

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High-Value Applications

• Flexible Distributed Energy and Water from Waste for the Food and Beverage Industry
  
  General Electric (GE) Global Research, in collaboration with GE Water & Process Technologies, GE Intelligent Platforms, and Sentech, Inc., will develop a systematic plant-wide automation for online monitoring and supervisory control. The system will enhance the robust and reliable operation of the waste-to-value plant by reducing frequency upsets by up to 90%. Successful demonstration will lead to widespread adoption and rapid commercialization in the food processing industry, and thereafter to related industries like pulp and paper and ethanol production.

• Microchannel High Temperature Recuperator for Fuel Cell Systems
  (Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009)
  
  FuelCell Energy, Inc., in collaboration with Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, the Oregon State University Materials Institute, the Microproducts Breakthrough Institute, and the Oregon Nanoscience and Materials Institute, will develop an efficient, microchannel-based waste heat recuperator for a high-temperature fuel cell system. This technology will increase the efficiency of fuel cells and improve their performance in distributed energy applications.

• Novel Controls for Economic Dispatch of Combined Cooling, Heating and Power (CCHP) Systems
  (Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009)
  
  University of California, Irvine, in collaboration with Siemens Corporate Research, will develop and demonstrate novel algorithms and dynamic control technology for optimal economic use of CCHP systems under 5 MW. The control systems and technologies under development are expected to increase market penetration of CCHP systems in the light industrial, commercial, and institutional markets.

• Residential Multi-Function Gas Heat Pump
  
  Southwest Gas Corporation, in collaboration with IntelliChoice Energy and Oak Ridge National Laboratory, will develop hardware and software for engine and system controls for a residential gas heat pump system that will provide space cooling, heating, and hot water. The project will build on system concepts and technical solutions developed for an 11-ton packaged natural gas heat pump.

• Ultra Efficient Combined Heat, Hydrogen, and Power System
  
  FuelCell Energy, Inc., in collaboration with ACuPowder International, LLC and Abbott Furnace Company, will develop a combined heat, hydrogen, and power (CHHP) system that utilizes reducing gas produced by a high-temperature fuel cell to directly replace hydrogen and nitrogen used in a bright annealing process at a copper production facility. The reducing gas will completely eliminate the hydrogen and nitrogen gas mix used in the copper reduction furnace and decrease utility costs by 25% for the host site.

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Fuel-Flexible CHP

• Adapting On-site Electrical Generation Platforms for Producer Gas
  
  The University of Minnesota, Morris, in collaboration with Cummins Power Generation Inc. and the University of Minnesota Center for Diesel Research, will optimize the integration of biomass gasification systems and internal combustion reciprocating engine gensets, enabling electricity generation from waste biomass while reducing diesel fuel consumption and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

• Development of an Advanced Combined Heat and Power (CHP) System Utilizing Off-Gas from Coke Calcination
  (Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009)
  
  The Gas Technology Institute, in collaboration with Superior Graphite Company, the University of Southern California, and Solex Thermal Science, Inc., will develop an energy-efficient process of petroleum coke calcination in a fluidized bed with an advanced CHP system using the off-gases and the waste heat from the calcined coke. The total amount of recycled heat from the newly developed coke calcination process has sufficient heat for the CHP to produce process stream and generate most of the electricity used by the fluidized bed.

• Development of Fuel-Flexible Combustion Systems Utilizing Opportunity Fuels in Gas Turbines
  
  GE Global Research, will develop a low-emission, efficient, fuel-flexible combustion technology that enables operation of a given gas turbine on a range of opportunity fuels that lie outside of current natural gas-centered fuel specifications.

• Fuel-Flexible Microturbine and Gasifier System for Combined Heat and Power
  
  Capstone Turbine Corporation, in collaboration with the University of California–Irvine, Packer Engineering, and Argonne National Laboratory, will develop and demonstrate a prototype microturbine combined heat and power system fueled by synthesis gas and integrated with a biomass gasifier, enabling reduced fossil fuel consumption and carbon dioxide emissions.

• Integrated Combined Heat and Power/Advanced Reciprocating Internal Combustion Engine System for Landfill Gas to Power Applications
  
  The Gas Technology Institute, in collaboration with numerous project partners, will improve cleanup-equipment performance for higher fuel utilization and reduced maintenance costs; develop and demonstrate an improved control system for stoichiometric engines that employs the most advanced sensor technology available for monitoring fuel heating value, engine exhaust NOx/oxygen levels, and changes in exhaust-gas temperature; produce a packaged and modular system for reduced installation costs; and reduce emissions in comparison to conventional technologies to meet local air quality authority emissions restrictions.

• Low-NOx Gas Turbine Injectors Utilizing Hydrogen-Rich Opportunity Fuels
  
  Solar Turbines Incorporated, in collaboration with The Pennsylvania State University and the University of Southern California, will redesign a gas turbine combustion system to operate on hydrogen-rich opportunity fuels. This technology should maximize efficiency and maintain satisfactory emissions performance while delivering reliability and durability to the customer.

• Novel Sorbent to Clean Biogas for Fuel Cell Combined Heat and Power
  
  TDA Research Inc., in collaboration with FuelCell Energy, will develop a new, high-capacity sorbent to remove sulfur from anaerobic digester gas. This technology will enable the production of a nearly sulfur-free biogas to replace natural gas in fuel cell power plants while reducing greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels.

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Demonstrations

• ArcelorMittal USA Blast Furnace Gas Flare Capture
  (Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009)
  
  

  ArcelorMittal USA, Inc.'s Indiana Harbor steel mill in East Chicago, Indiana, will install an energy recovery boiler system that will convert 46 billion cubic feet per year of waste blast furnace gas that is currently flared to the atmosphere during iron making operations to produce steam. The steam will be used to drive existing turbo-generators on-site to create 333,000 megawatt hours (MWh) of electricity and reduce CO₂ emissions by 340,000 tons annually.

• Combustion Turbine CHP System for Food Processing Industry
  
  

  Frito-Lay/PepsiCo, in cooperation with the Energy Solutions Center, is demonstrating and evaluating a CHP plant at a large food processing facility in Connecticut. CHP generation is reducing the energy costs and environmental impact of the facility while easing congestion on the constrained Northeast power grid. The fact sheet contains performance data from the plant after one year of operation.

• Johnston Rhode Island Combined Cycle Electric Generating Plant Fueled by Waste Landfill Gas
  (Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009)
  
  

  BroadRock Renewables LLC, in collaboration with DCO Energy, will construct and operate a combined cycle electric generating plant at the Central Landfill in Johnston, Rhode Island. It will be the second-largest landfill-gas-to-electricity facility in the United States. The facility will generate 33.4 MW of power and save an estimated 2.1 trillion Btu annually from the landfill gas that would otherwise be flared.

• Olinda Alpha Combined Cycle Electric Generating Plant Fueled by Waste Landfill Gas
  (Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009)
  
  

  BroadRock Renewables LLC, in collaboration with DCO Energy, will construct and operate a combined cycle electric generating plant at the Olinda Alpha Landfill in Brea, California. It will be the third-largest landfill-gas-to-electricity facility in the United States. The facility will generate 32 MW of power and save an estimated 2.2 trillion Btu annually from the landfill gas that would otherwise be flared.

• Texas A&M University CHP System
  (Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009)
  
  

  Texas A&M University (Texas A&M), in collaboration with Harvey Cleary Builders and Jacobs Engineering Group, plans to install an additional 7,500 tons of electric chilling capacity, campus-wide electrical distribution system upgrades, and a 45 MW high-efficiency, natural gas-fired CHP system consisting of a 34 MW combustion turbine, a 210,000-pound-per-hour (pph) heat recovery steam generator, and an 11 MW steam turbine generator. The system will operate as a baseload system to serve 50% of Texas A&M's peak power needs, 65% of electrical energy needs, and 80% of the heating loads (steam for cooling included). The system will also enable Texas A&M to isolate critical campus electrical loads during grid disruptions.

• Thermal Energy Corporation Combined Heat and Power Project
  (Funded by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009)
  • Case study
  
  

  Thermal Energy Corporation (TECO), in collaboration with Burns & McDonnell Engineering Co., Inc., operates the largest chilled water district energy system in the United States at the Texas Medical Center, the largest medical center in the world. TECO installed a new high-efficiency natural gas-fired CHP system capable of producing 48 MW of on-site generation and 330,000 pph of steam, a 75,000 ton-hour (8.8 million gallon) thermal energy storage tank, and an additional 32,000 tons of chilled water capacity. The CHP system can operate as a baseload system to serve 100% of the TECO plant peak electrical load and 100% of TECO customers' peak process and space heating loads. The system also enables the entire TECO plant to continue operations and provide uninterrupted energy services to TECO customers in the event of a prolonged grid outage.

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