Combined heat and power as a platform for clean energy systems

Date:
December 2, 2021
Source:
Georgia Institute of Technology
Summary:
The state of Georgia could dramatically reduce its greenhouse
gas emissions, while creating new jobs and a healthier public, if
more of its energy-intensive industries and commercial buildings
were to utilize combined heat and power (CHP), according to the
latest research.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
The state of Georgia could dramatically reduce its greenhouse gas
emissions, while creating new jobs and a healthier public, if more of
its energy-intensive industries and commercial buildings were to utilize combined heat and power (CHP), according to the latest research from
Georgia Tech's School of Public Policy.


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The paper, digitally available now and in print on December 15 in the
journal Applied Energy,finds that CHP -- or cogeneration -- could
measurably reduce Georgia's carbon footprint while creating green
jobs. Georgia ranks 8th among all 50 states for total net electricity generation and 11th for total carbon dioxide emissions, according to
data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

"There is an enormous opportunity for CHP to save industries money and
make them more competitive, while at the same time reducing air pollution, creating jobs and enhancing public health," said principal investigator
Marilyn Brown, Regents and Brook Byers professor of Sustainable Systems
at Georgia Tech's School of Public Policy.

Benefiting the Environment, Economy, and Public Health The research finds
that if Georgia added CHP systems to the 9,374 sites that are suitable for cogeneration, it could reduce carbon emissions in Georgia by 13%. Bringing
CHP to just 34 of Georgia's industrial plants, each with 25 megawatts
of electricity capacity, could reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 2%.

The study authors, using modeling tools they developed, note that this "achievable" level of CHP adoption could add 2,000 jobs to the state;
full deployment could support 13,000 new jobs.

According to Brown, CHP systems can be 85 to 90% efficient, compared
with 45 to 60% efficiency of traditional heat and power systems. CHP
has advantages over renewable electricity from solar and wind, which
only offers intermittent power.



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CHP technologies co-produce electricity useful for heat and cooling,
resulting in ultra-high system efficiencies, cleaner air, and more
affordable energy.

Georgia industries that would profit from CHP include chemical, textile,
pulp and paper, and food production. Large commercial buildings,
campuses, and military bases also could benefit from CHP. By utilizing
both electricity and heat from a single source onsite, the energy system
if more reliable, resilient, and efficient.

CHP can meet the same needs at higher efficiency using less overall
energy, while reducing peak demand on a region's utility-operated power
grid, Brown explained. In addition, if there is an outage or disruption
in a community's power grid, companies with their own onsite electricity sources can continue to have power.

Calculating CHP Costs and Benefits per Plant The research used a database
of every Georgia industrial site to determine which facilitates operated
or could operate a CHP system. They then identified the appropriate type
of CHP system for plants without one. To help assess if a CHP system
was a financially sound investment, they developed a model to estimate
the benefits and costs of each CHP system, factoring in the cost to
install the equipment, operations and maintenance, fuel expenses,
and financing. The result was an estimated "net present value" of each
system that reflected the present value of future costs and benefits,
Brown explained.

The paper also used data analytics to predict economic and health benefits
of CHP for Georgians. Plants converting to cogeneration could boost the
state's clean energy workforce by 2,000 to 13,000 depending on how widely
it's adopted, Brown said. Currently, the state has about 2,600 jobs in
electric vehicle manufacturing and less than 5,000 in the solar industry, according to the 11th Annual National Solar Jobs Census 2020.



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In addition to job growth, CHP adoption could lead to dramatic
health benefits for the state's more vulnerable residents, Brown
emphasized. "We're displacing more polluting electricity when companies generate their own from waste heat," she noted.

The study estimates nearly $150 million in reduced health costs and
ecological damages in 2030 in the "achievable" scenario for CHP, with
nearly $1 billion in health and ecological benefits if every Georgia
plant identified in the study adopted CHP.

"The public health improvements are gigantic -- that's a lot of
lives saved, as well as childhood asthma and heart problems avoided,"
Brown said.

Georgia Tech's research was sponsored by Drawdown Georgia, a statewide initiative focused on scaling market-ready, high-impact climate solutions
in Georgia this decade. The organization has identified a roadmap of 20 solutions, including electricity solutions such as CHP.

The impact of CHP could be dramatic considering that electricity
generation accounts for nearly 37% of Georgia's energy-related carbon
dioxide emissions, according to findings Brown and other researchers
published earlier this year in the journal, Environmental Management.

Identifying Ideal CHP Sites Georgia Tech researchers identified numerous different industrial sites in Georgia that could use combined heat and
power. Ideal locations include established universities or military bases,
and large industrial sites such as paper making, chemical sites, and food processing facilities. Georgia's number- one industry is agriculture,
with chemicals and wood products among the state's top manufacturers.

"I find Georgia's potential to take advantage of existing industrial and commercial facilities to build CHP plants very interesting," said study
co- author Valentina Sanmiguel, a 2020 master's graduate of the School of Public Policy in sustainable energy and environmental management. "I hope
both industries and policymakers in Georgia realize the benefits that cogeneration has on the environment, the economy and society and take
action to implement CHP in the state at a greater scale." Dissecting
Hurdles to Adoption Despite the advantages of CHP, there remains
hurdles to its adoption -- for one, establishing these facilities is capital-intensive, ranging from tens of millions for a campus CHP plant to hundreds of millions for a large plant at an industrial site. Once built,
these facilities require their own workforce to operate, explained Brown.

"The cost-competitiveness of CHP systems depends significantly on two
factors - - whether they are customer or utility-owned, and the type of
rate tariff they operate under," said Brown.

In the paper, Georgia Tech cited three ways to improve the business
case for CHP: clean energy portfolio standards, regulatory reform,
and financial incentives such as tax credits.

Those approaches have worked well in North Carolina, noted Isaac
Panzarella, director of the Department of Energy Southeast CHP Technical Assistance Partnership, and the assistant director for Technical Services
for the North Carolina's Clean Energy Technology Center at North Carolina
State University.

North Carolina State University, where Panzarella is based, recently
installed its second CHP facility on campus.

North Carolina, he added, has a policy that supports the use of renewable energy. Along with solar and wind, North Carolina embraced converting
waste from swine and poultry-feeding operations into renewable energy.

"It's taken a long time, but finally there are more and more of these
digester or biomass operations, using CHP to generate electricity and
thermal energy from those waste resources," he said.

While Georgia Tech is not yet operating a CHP system, the Campus
Sustainability Committee is currently examining options for lessening
their energy footprint.

"Georgia Tech seeks to leverage Dr. Brown's important research,
and the deep faculty expertise at Georgia Tech in climate solutions,
as we advance the development of a campus-wide Carbon Neutrality Plan
and Campus Master Plan in 2022," said Anne Rogers, associate director,
Office of Campus Sustainability.

"The Campus Master and Carbon Neutrality Plan will provide a roadmap to implementing sustainable infrastructure solutions to advance Georgia
Tech's strategic goals." Brown emphasized that Georgia utilities
should get behind cogeneration projects to help the state reduce its
carbon footprint.

Another hurdle is the relatively low electric rates in the Southeast,
which provide less of an opportunity to achieve a reasonable payback on
those systems. Georgia's industries that wish to be competitive globally
need to look at CHP considering that the rest of the world is embracing renewable and recycled energy at a faster rate than the U.S., Brown noted.

"In industries where CHP is well understood, and there are solidly
established businesses, it's a great investment and a smart way to keep
jobs in the community, while being good for the environment. The hurdles
are not about technology; they are all about policies and business
models," she concluded.

========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Georgia_Institute_of_Technology. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Marilyn A. Brown, Valentina Sanmiguel Herrera. Combined heat and
power as
a platform for clean energy systems. Applied Energy, 2021; 304:
117686 DOI: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2021.117686 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/12/211202191154.htm

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