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An innovative crane system allows cargo ports to dramatically cut the amount of diesel fuel they use to run generators. The REGEN system by VYCON Energy uses a flywheel to capture energy from the lowering of shipping containers.
A typical crane runs on a 500-800 kW generator to lift and then control the lowering of multi-ton containers. During the dropping of the container, the motor to runs in reverse, a situation where power could be generated, but is typically expelled as waste heat. The REGEN system capitalizes on this lowering part by absorbing that energy with the flywheel and feeding it back to the crane to be used immediately for the next lift. This allows the port to use smaller generators and, thus, less diesel fuel. Ports that have installed these systems have seen 30 - 45 percent reductions in fuel use.
The flywheel has a lifetime of about 20 years (no batteries to replace) and the company offers an installation kit for both existing and new cranes. The systems cost $120,000, but return on investment has been in about three-and-a-half to five years, which is pretty great for any energy-saving technology.
The systems are in use in China, Japan and other spots in Asia, and a lobbying group has formed in California to secure government money to install the systems there.
It makes you wonder, what other industries are missing the chance to generate energy from gravity?
via Greentech Media
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written by JC SR, August 13, 2009
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written by John Rowell, August 13, 2009
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With today's loan rates any company would be foolish to not buy in.
But, great as it is, it's not the best way to increase the bottom line for many businesses...
Dow Chemical’s Louisiana division.
You might have predicted that by 1982, after two major energy shocks, if any company in the country had captured the low-hanging fruit of energy savings, it would be one as energy intensive as a world-class chemical manufacturer. Nonetheless, energy manager for the division’s more than 20 plants, Ken Nelson, began a yearly contest in 1982 to identify and fund energy-saving projects. His success was nothing short of astonishing.
The first year had 27 winners requiring a total capital investment of $1.7 million with an average annual return on investment (ROI) of 173%. After those projects, many in Dow felt that there couldn’t be others with such high returns. The skeptics were wrong. The 1983 contest had 32 winners requiring a total capital investment of $2.2 million in a 340% return – a savings of the company’s $7.5 million in the first year and every year after that.
Even as fuel prices declined in the mid-1980s, the savings kept growing. Contest winners increasingly achieved the economic gains through process redesign to improve production yield and capacity. By 1988, these productivity gains exceeded the energy and environmental gains. The average return to the 1989 contest was the highest ever, an astounding 470% in 1989, 64 projects costing $7.5 million saved the company $37 million a year — a payback of 11 weeks.
http://climateprogress.org/2009/08/10/energy-efficiency-the-limitless-resource-dow-chemical/