Recycled Energy Development
The web’s resource for energy recycling news and information
It’s no secret that manufacturers in Ohio and across the nation have been forced to slash costs to survive the recession.
Too often, these cuts come at the expense of workers in the form of layoffs, hiring freezes and salary reductions. Meanwhile, another top cost is frequently overlooked, and that’s energy.
Among the most economically beneficial opportunities for savings, energy- efficiency initiatives can help improve business competitiveness and profits for years. One particularly ripe area for Ohio, and one that could also reduce the state’s carbon footprint, is called energy recycling.
Dating back to Thomas Edison and the dawn of the electrical age, energy recycling is now helping economies around the world produce more goods with less fossil fuel and lower pollution, yet it is woefully underused in the United States.
When fossil fuels like gas and coal are burned to produce electricity, as much as two-thirds of their energy is lost in the form of waste heat. For energy-intensive businesses — such as Ohio’s paper and petrochemical plants and the metal and glass makers vital to Ohio’s auto assemblies — this waste heat is simply vented into the atmosphere. Recycled energy techniques allow manufacturers to capture that waste and turn it into 100% clean power, thus lowering energy costs and raising productivity.
Here’s one example just west of us in Indiana.
At ArcelorMittal’s East Chicago steel plant, energy recycling projects capture and harness the manufacturer’s waste heat to generate 220 megawatts of power — more clean electricity than all the solar panels connected to the U.S. electric grid. Recycling energy saves the plant $100 million annually, while reducing CO2 emissions by the equivalent of removing 166,000 cars from the roads.
Industrial energy efficiency experts estimate that smelters here in Ohio could generate similar amounts of power through energy recycling. In fact, Ohio is home to nearly one-quarter of the country’s integrated steel mills, many of which are ideal candidates for this technology. If every Ohio manufacturing plant recycled its waste heat, companies could save millions, create thousands of jobs and reduce pollution.
Just across our southeast border, West Virginia Alloys melts quartz rock and converts it into silicon, a metal used to make hundreds of products. For 75 years, the company vented its 1,400° F waste heat into the atmosphere. Now, the company has embarked on a project to recycle this heat and convert it into 65 megawatts of pollution-free power. In addition to slashing their emissions, savings from lower energy costs will allow the plant to increase its work force, expand production and bring more silicon manufacturing back from overseas.
These need not be isolated examples. In Ohio, nearly 60 industrial facilities are prime candidates for energy recycling projects.
According to Oak Ridge National Laboratory, a large-scale expansion of energy-recycling efforts could provide up to 20% of U.S. electric capacity by 2030 and create nearly 1 million new jobs. With Ohio’s 10.1% unemployment rate, is there anything more important?
Despite its significant savings, energy recycling requires a great deal of capital investment. With a still- sputtering economy, this is a tough sell for many business owners who lack access to that level of capital.
Fortunately, Congress is considering investment tax credits for industrial energy efficiency, including combined heat and power and other energy recycling projects. The proposed bipartisan legislation, supported by numerous Ohio businesses, will maximize the economic and environmental benefits of energy recycling, giving business the means to make their energy work twice. With that help, more Ohio businesses can thrive, putting more Ohioans back to work.
Ohio’s congressional delegation from both parties should support this legislation. It’s an opportunity to help keep industrial jobs in Ohio while massively slashing greenhouse emissions.
Mr. Coleman is past president of the Mechanical Contractors Association of America and CEO of Coleman Spohn Corp. in Cleveland.
Contact us to discuss how energy recycling can help your organization.
