May 3, 2006—The Department of Energy (DOE) has launched Energy Saving Assessments at industrial facilities in several states in the past few weeks. The facilities include a cement factory in California; a chemical plant in Florida; a General Motors Corporation manufacturing plant in Michigan; a specialty materials plant in Pennsylvania; a roofing materials plant in Alabama; a fertilizer plant in Louisiana–the largest fertilizer plant in the US; and Eastman Kodak’s facility in New York–the largest industrial complex in the Northeast.
As one example, the Florida chemical plant is owned by CF Industries, Inc., and produces about two million tons per year of ammonium phosphate fertilizer. Steam produced in part of the plant is used for process heating and to generate about 32 megawatts of power, most of which is used to power the plant.
Such steam and process heating systems are the primary focus of DOE’s free three-day energy assessments, which are helping major manufacturing facilities to identify energy-saving opportunities.
DOE’s Energy Saving Teams have completed visits to over 30 large federal facilities and are in the process of visiting 200 energy-intensive manufacturing facilities as part of the national “Easy Ways to Save Energy” campaign launched in October 2005. The first 33 industrial Energy Saving Assessments have identified more than $150 million per year in potential energy cost savings. If implemented, these energy-saving measures could reportedly reduce natural gas consumption by more than 11 trillion Btu per year, according to DOE.
For more assessment results visit the DOE’s “Save Energy Now” Web page.
