Commercial Construction Case Studies

By proving the real-world performance and efficiency of gas-driven chilling, marijuana growers may provide the innovative spark that spreads the cost-saving technology throughout the building industry.

By leveraging the advantages of combined heat and power, commonly referred to as “CHP”, the Ilios unit is able to efficiently and cost effectively drive a heat pump process with a gaseous fueled reciprocating engine.

This project will demonstrate the technical viability of incorporating propane-fueled micro-CHP with renewable energy technologies. It will also provide a firsthand opportunity for the public to learn about the technology and evaluate it as a here-and-now, feasible alternative to business as usual, and for the propane industry to learn valuable “early adopter” lessons.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters (GMCR), a gourmet coffee roaster and packager, located in Waterbury, Vermont, had experienced several power disturbances a month, ranging in duration from less than a second to hours. Because the coffee roasting process cannot be interrupted, the outages had caused significant product loss.

Overall, the CP10WN’s energy utilization (heat + electricity) is high (89% average) because the mCHP system’s primary purpose in this application is to provide heat recovery to the facility with generating electricity as the secondary purpose. The CP10WN’s electrical utilization (92% average) is high due to the need for and use of the system as the clinic’s power source.

The system is integrated with the resort’s existing diesel-fired boilers (which now provide steam for laundry use and supplemental domestic hot water heating) and 450-ton electric chillers. To preserve the resort’s electric rate structure, the system is sized to allow the resort to purchase electricity from the grid and use on-site generation only as a supplement to meet at least 50 percent of the resort’s daily electric load.

The new Alternative Technology Demonstration & Research Program, sponsored by the Propane Education & Research Council (PERC), offers commercial and industrial businesses the opportunity to earn compensation by contributing valuable data on propane-powered cooling and combined heat and power (CHP) systems.