“Te feasibility for a wind turbine
increases with energy demand, espe- cially if the demand is spread out over a 24-hour period,” said Dan Turner, one of Windustry’s program analysts. “If a factory is running 24 hours for three shifts and drawing power all the time, that is kind of an ideal situation for a wind turbine to pay off.”
Problems and Prospects Turner says privately-produced
wind power can only be used as a sup- plement to other power sources at this time. Capturing wind turbine energy in a battery is still cost-prohibitive, so pri- vate turbines are most effective when the wind is howling. Tat’s why the machines can pay back most quickly in a 24-hour setting. “Oftentimes, the wind blows well
at night, and the turbine is producing good energy,” Turner said. What’s more, it is difficult to deter- mine just how much return on your wind turbine investment you will see. According to Turner, the only way to do so is to perform extensive data collec- tion on the wind patterns in your area. “Generally, the return is good in
areas known for having high winds—a lot of the Midwest, the Great Plains states,” he said. Turner said the number of manu-
facturers using wind turbines to sup- plement their energy use is minimal at this time, but several ethanol producers in the Midwest are actively using them. And if researchers figure out how to store the energy in a battery, wind could be used to power a manufactur- ing facility around the clock.
Could it work?
Methane Gas Imagine you could install a pipeline
a half dozen miles long from the nearest landfill to your metalcasting plant that would harness a gas previously thought of as only a byproduct of organic mate- rial decomposition and make it a viable energy source for your facility. Where would you find this place of magic and wonder? Michigan.
Peter Kinley’s Prometheus system is a two-stage solar concentrator that can melt low melting-point metals like pewter in minutes.
Te Eagle Group, Muskegon,
Mich., has been supplementing its natural gas use with methane and car- bon dioxide gas drawn from a landfill 6.7 miles away since 2008. According to John Workman, Eagle’s vice presi- dent, the company spent roughly $1.5 million on the system, which extracts, compresses, dries and delivers the gas to its facility. Today, the metalcast- ing company uses natural gas for only 20% of its needs. Te landfill gas (50% methane, 50% carbon dioxide) takes care of the remaining 80%. While Eagle is not seeing the kind of spike in natural gas costs it saw when it began the project (and has reduced its gas needs through continu- ous improvement), the company proj- ects that the savings produced from the landfill gas should pay for the system in 3.28 years. “It worked,” Workman said.
Problems and Prospects While the landfill gas project has
shown itself to be a financially sound one for Eagle, the project was made possible by a unique set of circum- stances. And it has not been without its hiccups. According to Workman, several of the company’s more sophis- ticated heat treat burners require natural gas supplements, as they flame out too often with the landfill gas. Rain also causes the burners to flame
out, possibly by counteracting the drier that is installed at the extraction point. Te system does not operate at low volumes, and when the company shuts down on weekends and stops the landfill gas flow, the carbon dioxide separates from the methane, rendering the gas unusable.
Could it work?
Microwave Melting Never put metal in the micro-
wave—or so they say. Former steel caster and current art caster and invest- ment casting consultant David Reid wasn’t so sure. What if you could use microwaves to melt metal, rather than simply caus- ing the material to flame up (à la the fork you left in your nuked leftovers)? Reid solved the problem by creating
a small crucible that fits inside a stan- dard microwave and placing the metal inside the vessel. Te resulting green- house effect produced enough heat to melt small quantities of low melting point material. “We managed to get castings, but
we never put it out to commercial metalcasters,” Reid said.
Problems and Prospects While Reid said he believes at
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