Industrial Market
U.S. industrial facilities utilize a wide array of thermal
process equipment, including:
- Hot water heaters
- Thermal liquid heaters
- Ovens
- Furnaces
- Kilns
- Dryers
- Chillers
- Boilers
In most industrial facilities, process heating is provided
by direct or indirect heat exchange from fossil fuel-fired combustion
systems. Process heating may also be provided by the direct or indirect
use of steam supplied by central boiler systems. Many of these systems
could be retrofit to become part of integrated Distributed Generation
(DG) cogeneration systems, or Combined Heat and Power (CHP) systems.
There has been considerable interest shown in the distributed
generation field over the past 5 years. This market movement has gained
credence with the distributed generation equipment manufacturers,
and they have made substantial investments in the development of new
power generation technologies. However, little is being spent to develop
innovative industrial cooling and thermal systems and less on how
to integrate distributed generation equipment within manufacturing
processes, where the greatest opportunity to use waste heat can be
found.
Adaptation of innovative cogeneration systems is more
advantageous from a national energy and environmental policy standpoint
than other distributed generation applications, because of the high
overall efficiency of these systems.
Conventional large cogeneration systems are well developed,
widely deployed, and utilize readily available thermal technologies.
Their use and benefits are well documented. The thrust of this effort
is to look beyond these beneficial and economically-attractive conventional
technologies and identify very replicable and innovative cogeneration
approaches integrated with selected industrial process operations.
One of the guiding principals of applying cogeneration
is the efficient utilization of all energy input to the process. To
accomplish this, thermal energy normally rejected needs to be recovered
to the maximum extent possible. This can be achieved by recovering
heat from the DG equipment exhaust stream, and for engine system,
heat can also be recovered from the water jacket, oil cooler, and
aftercooler.
The five cogeneration systems that will be analyzed
in the market assessment are:
- Direct contact water heaters
- Indirect liquid heating/Thermal Fluids
- Convection ovens used for metals fabrication preheating
- Indirect air heating, and
- Exhaust gas as an oxidant for central boiler systems
Factors that influence economic market potential
by system type include:
- Number of facilities in the U.S. with matching
thermal processes (there are more facilities with central boiler
systems that could be retrofit with cogeneration than potential
facilities with convection ovens for metals fabrication)
- Thermal system cogeneration retrofit cost,
which affects the total installed cost of the cogeneration system
(lower installed cost improves project economics and market potential)
- Existing thermal system efficiency (the lower
the existing thermal system efficiency, the more cost-effective
the project - indirect air heating efficiency is often below 50%,
while convection ovens exceed 85%)
- System sizes for each type (system types where
there are more potential facilities with matching thermal processes
in the larger size ranges, because retrofit, engineering, and installation
costs are lower in terms of dollars per kW in the larger sizes).
Factors that influence market economic market
potential that vary by prime mover type include:
- Prime mover electric efficiency (for most size
ranges, reciprocating engines have the highest electric efficiency)
- Available usable thermal output from the prime
mover (unrecuperated turbines have the highest)
- Prime mover installed cost (reciprocating engines
and unrecuperated turbines are less expensive than recuperated turbines
in all size ranges - for example, the installed costs for a 70-100
kW direct contact water heater system using a recuperated turbine
is over $2,400 per kW, and this decreases to under 1,000/kW in the
800-1000 kW size range)
For more information on each application: