MTU Onsite Energy Continuous Gas Power Systems Now Offered Through Western Branch Diesel

Highly Efficient Combined Heat and Power Solutions for a Broad Range of Applications

MTU Onsite Energy brings continuous gas power solutions to North America through Western Branch Diesel. These systems generating electricity and heat – also known as combined heat and power (CHP), run on natural gas, biogas, sewage gas or landfill gas and have been successfully installed in Europe and Asia for over 35 years. The wide range of usable fuels opens the door to a large number of applications, such as farming operations, municipal buildings, hospitals, campuses and manufacturing facilities.

CHP Features:

• Reliable, highly efficient, low emission and cost effective power generation
• Efficiency rates above 90 % with co- and tri-generation
• Gas engines Series 400 up to 358 kW
• Gas engines Series 4000 up to 2135 kW
• Full fuel gas flexibility

“Due to the population and the parallel economic growth we will have a constantly rising demand for energy all over the world, and this technology means that electricity and heat can be generated onsite where they are needed – reliably, extremely efficiently and in an environmentally friendly way,” said Ulrich Kemnitz, executive vice president for Onsite Energy at Tognum AG. ‘This is an important contribution for the future world’s sustainable development.”

The CHP process is one of the ways for businesses and other large facilities to control costs for heating, lighting and cooling, because it employs technology that extracts multiple forms of usable energy from a single fuel source: electrical power via a generator and thermal power thanks to the exhaust heat from the engine. “This means we can achieve efficiency rates above 90% and are able to utilize virtually all of the energy present in the gas,” explained Kemnitz. Compared to the use of separate heat and power systems, CHP is beneficial for the environment, thanks to its utilization of alternative fuels, low emissions and reduced overall fuel usage.

MTU Onsite Energy CHP systems can create any combination of heat and electricity for applications that have a simultaneous need for electrical and thermal power for more than 8,000 hours per year. ”Most packaged CHP systems are based on gas turbines or gaseous-fueled reciprocating engines,” said Stefan Kohler, senior manager, North American sales, MTU Onsite Energy. “Gas turbines have typically been favored for very large applications, but natural gas or biogas reciprocating engines have the flexibility to power applications from 100 kW to 5 MW at a lower cost. Our proven CHP systems are designed to be complete solutions for our customers’ environmental and business needs.”

Two models of the MTU Onsite Energy CHP system are available in North America. The compact Series 400 model, which is fueled by natural gas, biogas, landfill gas or sewage gas, produces 128 to 358 kW. The larger Series 4000 model produces 764 to 2135 kW, and is fueled by natural gas. The electric power can be used to power some or all of the electricity needed by a facility. An exhaust heat exchanger is used to capture the high-quality heat from the exhaust system. Additional heat can be captured from the engine’s cooling system. This heat can be used to make hot water or low-pressure steam for a wide variety of uses, such as space heating, food processing, wastewater treatment or swimming pool heating.

The CHP system is also able to produce a combination of power, heat and cooling, or trigeneration. The lower temperature heat from the reciprocating engine’s cooling system in the CHP system is especially suited for powering an absorption chiller – which uses heat energy to produce cooling.

Rob Miltz, WBD Chief Operating Officer commented, “Continuing to bring our customers the most innovative, cost effective, comprehensive and environmentally conscious power solutions is an enduring mission at Western Branch Diesel. The addition of CHP solutions to our portfolio of power offerings, not only fulfills this objective, it meets our goal to improve the lives of our business partners, employees and the communities in which we live and work.” Miltz continued, “We are excited that Western Branch Diesel will contribute to North America’s sustainable power development through continuous gas technology applications here that have been successfully employed by other countries for decades.”