ENERGY
Revisiting
CHP
Carbon reduction incentives are improving the cogeneration payback equation for ethanol plants, but only a fraction of producers are doing it. By Susanne Retka Schill
Today, the quest for carbon intensity reduction has plants revisiting combined heat and power (CHP) systems. Siouxland Ethanol in Jackson, Nebraska, recently began generating its own electricity with a CHP system. Much of the payback
will come in a lowered carbon intensity score in the California market. When The Andersons doubled capacity at its Albion, Michigan, facility a few years ago, it installed CHP partly to ensure it could maintain the greenhouse gas reduction target required in the U.S. EPA’s efficient producer program. CHP has been an option for ethanol producers since the early days. But while all plants could utilize the energy efficient systems, cogeneration has been installed in only a fraction. A U.S. DOE database shows 37 ethanol producers with CHP— combustion turbines, boiler/steam tur-
22 | ETHANOL PRODUCER MAGAZINE | AUGUST 2021
POWER PLAY: Poet, the largest U.S. ethanol producer, has installed natural gas-fired turbines like this one at several of its facilities. Along with steam let-down turbines, the cogeneration systems are generating a combined 100 MW-plus of electricity throughout Poet's fleet. PHOTO: POET
