Clean energy
Dresser-Rand provides a complete range of combined
heat and power (CHP) solutions and
aftermarket services to commercial, industrial,
and municipal energy users worldwide. CHP
systems reduce on-site energy costs and carbon
dioxide emissions through the highly efficient
delivery of power, heating and cooling.
Boston Scientific Corporation, which has
headquarters in Natick, MA in the US, was the
first
Massachusetts-based company to respond to the
governor's Clean Energy Challenge. This calls
for local
businesses to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions
by
10% over the next three years.
Boston Scientific accepted the challenge by investing
in a solar-trigeneration system for the Marlborough,
MA facility.
This trigeneration system was designed and
manufactured by Dresser-Rand and was installed
in
August 2010. Boston Scientific's facilities experts
and
project managers organised the 40-week design/build
project and saw it through from factory build
to
commissioning, with assistance from outside engineers,
contractors and two local utility companies.
In combination with the renewable solar thermal
energy,
which comprises the combined cooling, heating
and
power (CCHP) systems roof assembly, the system
will
generate approximately $300,000 in energy savings
each year.
Operating at approximately 80% efficiency, the
system
compares favourably to grid power, which can be
as
low as 35% efficient at the generation point,
with an
additional loss of 7-9% in the transmission and
distribution phases.
This dramatic increase in energy efficiency for
the
site will reduce CO2 emissions by approximately
1,700 tons per year. In CO2 reduction efforts,
this is
equivalent to planting approximately 359 acres
of pine
and fir trees.
Unique approach
"Boston Scientific recognised that its unique
blend of
energy requirements needed to sustain and propel
its
cutting-edge pharmaceutical R&D and manufacturing
processes would require a unique approach to energy
conservation and environmental stewardship,"
says
Stephen Zilonis, VP Business Development for Dresser-
Rand CHP group. "Now more than ever it's
important
that commercial and industrial energy users maximise
their fuel efficiency," Zilonis continues.
"One way to
achieve that is through this type of properly
applied
distributed generation."
A CHP, or cogeneration system, offers an
environmentally friendly option for providing
power
and energy where it's needed through the simultaneous
generation of usable heat and electricity.
Trigeneration is the simultaneous production
of electric
power, heating and cooling. The absorption chiller
(no
chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs) is assembled with
all the
necessary pumps, heat exchangers and controls,
in an
engineered package consisting of the same construction
as the matched CHP unit.
The site's existing HVAC cooling tower system,
controlled by the integrated trigeneration control
and
monitoring system, provides cooling of the absorption
chiller package and engine system when required.
Facilities personnel do not have to intervene
for daily
operation of this cooling tower.
Solar power
Dresser-Rand's trigeneration systems are designed
to
match client requirements for electricity, heating
and
cooling precisely.
At Boston Scientific the performance of the
trigeneration system was further supplemented
by a solar
thermal array roof design, which delivers additional
heat
to the system's primary hot water circuit for
transfer to
either the heating or cooling demands of the facility.
Boston Scientific's 555kWe-130 USRT unit provides
continuous, on-site-generated electricity, heating
and
cooling to its office and R&D facility from
a single, natural
gas fuel source. The unit is capable of delivering
3.6
million BTUs of hot water at 180°F (82°C)
or up to 130 tons
of chilled water via an absorption chiller. These
outputs
are designed to provide about 20% of the site's
cooling
demand and 35 percent of its hot water demand
on a
typical day.
The unit is fuelled by clean natural gas and,
by using a
catalytic converter system, achieves emission
levels well
within EPA guidelines.
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