The two new models, the PureComfort 300M and PureComfort 360M, have been added to the range to offer higher power, cooling and heating capacity and to provide manufacturers with greater flexibility and choice in meeting their energy reduction needs. Each PureComfort solution is a turnkey solution that UTC Power claims can lead to energy efficiency savings of over 90 per cent in some applications.
"Each year, the US wastes more energy than it productively uses," said Jan van Dokkum, president of UTC Power. "PureComfort solutions are a very environmentally friendly approach to achieving energy savings and power security by recycling waste heat.
"In relation to the emissions from fossil fuelled grid power, each installed PureComfort system eliminates more than 10,000 pounds of nitrogen oxide emissions per year, the equivalent of removing about 250 passenger cars from the nation's roadways."
Energy efficiency has certainly become an important consideration for food and beverage manufacturers. Production line managers are experiencing ever-greater pressure to meet new climate control regulations, reduced emission targets and better waste disposal.
In Europe for example, EU ETS is one of the policies being introduced to tackle emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases and combat the serious threat of climate change. The scheme comes into force on 1 January 2005, and is designed to ensure that greenhouse gas emissions in the energy and industry sectors are cut at least cost to the economy and help the EU and its Member States meet their emission targets under the 1997 Kyoto Protocol.
The environmental regulator has cautioned food and drink manufacturers that if they fail to comply with essential environmental legislation they risk hefty fines.
UTC Power, a division of US-based United Technologies, says that PureComfort technology is well suited to applications that depend heavily on refrigeration. The units can be configured and installed in a variety of ways and integrated with a new or existing building control system. After installation is complete, UTC Power can monitor system performance remotely.
The PureComfort solution consists of a double-effect absorption chiller driven by recycled exhaust heat from UTC Power's 60kW, low-emission microturbines. With the double-effect absorption chiller, cooling and heating are achieved by the same unit, thus conserving space and simplifying design. Technology for the PureComfort products has been developed in partnership with the US department of energy's office of distributed energy.
Many manufacturers have indeed taken steps to reduce emissions associated with their operations and achieve greater energy efficiency. Kraft Foods for example has just selected Rockwell Automation's Power & Energy Management Solutions (PEMS) team to develop and execute a sustained energy reduction initiative across all its manufacturing facilities in North America.
This multiyear initiative is designed to facilitate Kraft's understanding and management of how energy is used within its plants and help the company identify opportunities to reduce energy costs through lower consumption.
"Finding ways to reduce energy demand is fully consistent with our drive to achieve efficiencies in all aspects of our business," said Fred Sherriff, vice president of manufacturing technical services for Kraft. "It is also consistent with our efforts as a responsible corporate citizen to reduce the environmental impact of our operations."
In an article for the July/August issue of Foreign Affairs, BP group chief executive Lord Browne of Madingley stressed that private sector efforts will be crucial in improving fossil fuel efficiency and developing alternative sources of energy.
"The most recent IPCC assessment, published in 2001, concludes that if no precautionary action is taken, carbon dioxide concentrations will rise by 2050 to between 450 and 550 ppm and will continue to increase throughout the twenty-first century," he wrote. " The IPCC estimates that temperatures will rise by between 0.5 degrees Celsius and 2.5 degrees Celsius by 2050, with an increase of 1.4 degrees to 5.8 degrees possible by 2100."
These concerns, said Browne, are serious. "But they are not the only energy security issues we face. Equally worrying is the risk that the growing consumption of hydrocarbons will impose an unsustainable burden on the earth's climate. If that threat becomes a reality, drastic action could become necessary, imposing crippling costs on the whole world."