Waste water plant to install CHP facility

The waste water treatment plant located in Medina, New York, is to install a 60kW combined heat and power (CHP) facility which will be used to feed electricity to the grid.

The site was given a Green Infrastructure Grant from the Environmental Facilities Corporation, which is funding similar upgrades.

Tecogen has been chosen as the company to supply the cogeneration system and the plant, which was the region’s biggest power consumer, will now be able to offset its high level of electricity consumption.

The technology works by using the biogas created from the waste sludge to power an engine. The anaerobic digester system is maintained at a constant temperature of 37.8°C and a lot of this heat will be generated from the process of burning the biogas.

The project is predicted to save the plant $10,000 (€7,500) a year in natural gas and electricity costs.

‘The addition of the Tecogen CHP system to the waste water treatment plant will allow us to make a substantial amount of usable energy from what was once just a byproduct of the treatment process.’ says Peter Houseknecht, supervisor of public works for Medina. ‘Adding CHP to the solar PV panels, geothermal heat pumps, efficient lighting upgrades and other energy saving measures will bring our plant to the cutting edge of efficiency technology.’

‘The plant is currently producing enough biogas to generate about 40kW of electricity though more biogas may be produced in the future and the flexibility of the Tecogen system to produce up to 60kW of electricity means that we will have room to grow,’ adds Ram Shrivastava, CEO of Larsen Engineers, plant upgrade designers.