As many businesses try to commit to reducing their carbon footprint with the use of other energy sources, the manufacturing world stands watch and takes note. Proctor & Gamble, making good on a commitment to try to obtain a whopping third of its energy from renewable sources by 2020, recently announced its completed biomass-fueled combined heat and power plant and the results are exciting.

The plant generates electricity for the local utility company as well as providing steam to P&G’s paper manufacturing facility. Eventually, the steam from the plant will provide energy for the Marine Corps Logistics Base in Albany, Georgia, enabling increased energy security. The plant is powered by local biomass in the form of landfill, discarded tree tops, limbs, branches, crop residuals such as pecan shells or peanut hulls and mill waste like sawdust.

Fueling with biomass is not a new idea, but it is gaining in popularity. Komax has worked with biomass for fuel applications for years now. Our heat exchanger and digester can manage sludge from animal waste without plugging, fouling, scaling and other issues that affect heat transfer. Our Klean Wall Heat Exchanger processes high solids sludge while creating turbulent flow that constantly scavenges the pipe and eliminates wall fouling, passing debris as large as 50% of the diameter of the pipe!

This steam plant brings P&G (along with its wind energy project) almost two thirds of the way to their goal of 30% renewable energy. Customers will no doubt be impressed by these efforts and P&G will reap the rewards of flexible energy costs and reliability. Across industry lines, saving energy is a huge problem for many organizations. Work with Komax to see how you can also streamline your processes and make a significant impact on your energy use and costs.