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ADM
Corn Products International, Inc.
General Mills
Nestlé
Mars/M&M
Sunkist
This well known fruit processor’s Tipton byproducts plant doesn't expect to be shut down when the power grid fails as it did recently in northeastern U.S. or when rolling blackouts hit as they did when California had its energy crisis in 2001. Two cogeneration units that can produce 95% of the energy needed to run the plant were installed recently. And, for the eight months of the year the plant processes oranges, the generators will produce all the electricity needed.
4C Foods Corporation
Del Monte
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Del Monte is host to a waste heat-driven chilling technology demonstration project for can cooker/cooler optimization. The thermal processing of fruits and vegetables involves heating the cans in a “retort” and then cooling the cans using chilled water. Waste heat-driven refrigeration technology linking heating & cooling together has the potential to optimize the can cooking and cooling cycle. |
The chilling cycle of the can cooker/cooler process at the selected site consumes about 1.32 million kWh of electricity per year. Del Monte’s demonstration project is expected to save about 75% of this electricity. Savings are partially offset by the 13,000 therms of gas that may be needed to supplement waste heat.
There are approximately 56 “processor” members of the California League of Food Processors. It is estimated that two-thirds of these companies have cooking and cooling operations, with the total number of cookers statewide exceed 200 sites. Assuming same level and size of savings the electricity savings could be 264 million kWh/year.
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Morning Star |
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Morning Star is a $350 million tomato and fruit processor, providing 25% of California tomato processing market, and processes 30% of all U.S. tomato paste.
Manufacturing facilities in Williams and Los Banos CA run “full-throttle” for 3 months/year when harvest comes in. Facilities take fruit and vegetables “from the farm,” convert them into broad array of canned goods. Thermally energy is used to cook, convert and sterilize raw materials. The power plant generates steam (at 450 psig, then steps down to multiple lower pressures throughout facility) for use in evaporators and “hot breaks” design generates steam.
Essentially, the "break" is a large cooker, where tomatoes are heated to a closely-monitored temperature. The "break" is a very important stage. This is where the tomatoes are heated very rapidly. Tomato paste can either be hot break or cold break paste. Hot break tomato paste preserves viscosity or "thickness", but at a slight cost of flavor. Cold break paste preserves virtually all the flavor, but at the cost of viscosity. In the hot break process (heating the tomatoes to approximately 210 degrees F), "pectic enzymes" are inactivated, inhibiting the breakdown of pectin, creating a more viscous product. However, the enzyme lipoxygenase (vital to flavor) is also inactivated in the hot break process. In cold break tomato paste (heated to approximately 150 degrees F), lipoxygenase "survives," while polymethylesterase and polygalacturonase are not inactivated--bad for viscosity, but good for flavor. |
A timeline of upgrades illustrates the impact of CHP:
• 1995: Installed economic, baseload design to reduce 80,000 lbs/hr of 450 psig à 120/30 psig steam to generate 2 MW of electric. Peak plant steam flow = 120,000 lbs/hr, peak electric load 3 MW
• Fall 1999: Plant expansion allows Morning Star to purchase third system, increasing total on-site generation to 3 MW. Turbosteam sells system with switchgear and circuit breaker to allow providing potential for self-sufficiency.
• Since 2000, Morning Star has operated by cutting tie with grid during high-risk summer periods, insulating their load from grid volatility.
In 2000, the infamous CA Power crisis occurred; prices spiked to >15 c/kWh, massive blackouts happened. Morning Star averages 2-3 c/kWh for all generation, has uninterrupted service. Total CHP installation costs, between 1995 and 1999, was $1 million; summer 2000 avoided electric expense alone was $830,000.
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Hermany Farms Dairy Plant
Allen Family Chicken Processors |
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Allen Family Foods, Inc. currently owns and operates a poultry processing plant, covering 30 acres, in Hurlock—on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. Two fuel oil fired boilers with a total output of 30 MMBTU are currently used to generate steam for use in the processing plant. They burn a combined total of over 300,000 gallons of one-half (1/2 %) percent sulfur, No. 6 fuel oil per year. Steam generated by these boilers is supplied to the processing plant by three main headers with the boiler blowdown discharged to Hurlock’s wastewater treatment plant. |
Allen Family Foods, Inc. plan to install a 4-MW co-generation facility to generate electricity and steam from the processing of poultry manure, obviating the need to buy commercial power and generate steam from the burning of fossil fuel. The energy from the litter gasification process will be recovered and used to indirectly heat air to drive a turbine generator set.
A major benefit of using poultry litter as the primary fuel source will greatly reduce the dependence of Allen on fossil fuel, and remove excess poultry litter. The proposed station will gasify poultry litter at low temperatures, collect the solids for commercial fertilizer, destroy the odors at high temperature and indirectly transfer the heat from the process to produce steam and power for the Allen Hurlock plant. Surplus electrical power will be sent to the grid.
Because poultry litter contains a substantial amount (10 percent or more) of inorganic non-combustible mater, combustion of litter would generate ash which can be utilized as an agricultural fertilizer high in potassium and phosphorus, and low in nitrogen. Two notable benefits of using the ash as a fertilizer rather than litter would be the elimination of the adverse aesthetic and nuisance aspects, and more importantly, the elimination of concern regarding biosecurity (i.e., the transfer or propagation of disease). Additionally, the smaller volume and lower weight of the ash relative to the raw litter may permit economic transportation to more distant farms for application as a fertilizer.
Perdue
Smithfield
Tyson Chicken
Information not yet available.
Chicago Baking Company
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FritoLay
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• Has used CHP since 1986 to make corn products.
• Sells excess power to PG&E.
• Testing an adsorption chiller using waste heat from process stack.
• Testing an Organic Rankine Cycle engine to make electricity from waste heat.
• Hot water recovery for process applications
• Pilot test for anaerobic digester for wastewater treatment.
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Miller Brewing Company
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Irwindale, CA (a suburb of Los Angeles)
• Uses ammonia as its refrigerant
• Plant uses two Frick screw compressors driven by 3512 turbocharged Caterpillar natural gas engines
• Each engine is equipped with heat exchangers which preheat boiler feed water, which offsets a portion of the boiler gas
• Heat recovery from the engines (34-38% energy recovery rate of fuel input) plays a substantial role in the energy economics of the Miller system; contribution that heat recovery makes to the bottom line in Miller's case is 32% or about $150,000 annually.
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Coors
Anheuser Busch
New Belgium Brewing Company
At the New Belgium Brewing Company in Fort Collins, CO, an on-site anaerobic digester processes up to twenty million gallons of wastewater each year. The biogas produced during the wastewater treatment is used as fuel for a 310 kW internal combustion engine that provides a portion of the brewery’s electricity. The engine’s cooling jacket and exhaust gases preheat water to be used in the brewing process |
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To find other relevant industry case studies, searchable by sector, subsector, prime mover, state, etc., see the Distributed Energy Program’s Case Study Database.
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