COMBINED HEAT AND POWER
Cogeneration gaining in popularity for CHP and CCHP
Caleb Finch, communications manager at Capstone Turbine Technology, considers the advantages of modern microturbine technology in CHP and CCHP installations, explaining that microturbine CHP is ‘especially suitable for healthcare facilities that are looking to increase their energy efficiency, lower their greenhouse emissions, and save money at the meter’.
In the face of climate change and rising energy costs, ‘small-cap’ industrial organisations are identifying with the need to implement sustainable energy solutions. The push to improve energy efficiency is growing on a global scale, as these organisations seek out ways to reduce their operating costs and minimise greenhouse emissions. This trend is being further driven by stringent environmental regulations, with government and private entities increasingly developing clean energy programmes for their industrial facilities. More clean energy programmes are being enacted on a global scale than ever before – an example being the Energy Efficiency Accelerator Platform launched at the 2014 United Nations Climate Summit – and others are still under development, creating platforms for making energy infrastructure improvements that are good for both business and the environment.
Rise of cogeneration
For small-cap industrial organisations like hospitals and medical centres, one such improvement is on-site cogeneration. Thousands of cogeneration and trigeneration systems, also known as combined heat and power (CHP) or combined cooling, heat and power (CCHP) systems respectively, are being
installed around the world, and in several different application environments. Investing in CHP allows these organisations to operate independently of the local electricity utility, and increase energy efficiency through the use of clean-burning, low emission power generation technologies.
Unfortunately for the utility companies, their distribution grids can only sell electrical power, not thermal power. Unless the utility can deliver exhaust heat to a local municipality for underground distribution to the site, the distributed waste heat cannot be utilised as an asset. With that said, the utility company will typically dump this waste heat, which is just as valuable as its electrical output, through cooling towers, or pipe in water from a nearby source. Utility generating plants are constructed alongside water sources precisely for this heat-dissipating advantage.
What is a microturbine? Microturbines are derived from turbocharger technologies such as those found in jet aircraft. Ranging in size from 30 kilowatts (kW) to 10 megawatts (MW), they run at high speeds, allowing for high power output with minimal noise and vibration. By definition, microturbines are small combustion turbine engines that
turn gaseous and liquid fuels into usable electricity. With only one moving part – the rotor – they serve as a low- maintenance technology intended to run for long intervals and without the need for exhaust after-treatment. In addition to electrical generation, microturbines continuously produce clean exhaust heat, which can then be recovered via a heat exchanger and fed either to a thermal energy storage tank or an on-site distribution system. This thermal energy can be used in a variety of ways, including for the production of hot water, for space heating, and for cooling via a chiller, as well as to fuel industrial equipment. Microturbine power plants are able to run ‘24/7’, and among their additional benefits to end-users are improved environmental performance and reduced congestion on the electric grid. Moreover, centralised electricity generation, paired with separate on-site heat generation, has a combined efficiency of about 45 per cent, whereas microturbine energy systems can achieve efficiency levels of up to 80 per cent with CHP, and up to 90 per cent with CCHP, or higher in some cases.
Microturbine CHP A Capstone C65 microturbine rotor – the only moving part in the entire system.
Microturbine CHP is especially suitable for healthcare facilities that are looking to increase their energy efficiency, lower their greenhouse emissions, and save money at the meter. Hospitals, in particular, are ideal applications for CHP systems, because they require heat and electricity on a continuous basis. Cogeneration plant sizes range in scale according to the type of building they are used for and the energy load required. Virtually any commercial or industrial application that requires heat, cold air, or hot and cold water production, is a candidate for microturbine CHP systems, which can generate at least 10 to 20 per cent in energy savings for most applications. Another benefit of microturbine CHP is that the amount of heat loss associated with on-site distributed generation is much lower. Microturbine generators are located
April 2017 Health Estate Journal 31
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