What can industry do to improve its bottom line and decrease its environmental impact?
Some businesses are taking advantage of emerging technologies that do both.
And as NHPR?s Dan Gorenstein reports, a conference in Concord yesterday, introduced some of those new developments.
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:04 ? Industry really has a terrific time to make terrific changes from soup to nuts. From the building they are in, to how they light it, to the machines they run, the fuel they run to use them with.
That?s Bill Burtiss.
He works for Clean Air Cool Planet, a business organization trying to decrease greenhouse gases.
But before businesses implement the new technologies, they need to take stock of what they?ve got. Jim Taylor of the Governor?s Office of Energy and Community Services.
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:38 what we found is the best thing for companies to do is plan and assess what they really need to have. To often companies will hear that lighting is a really quick pay-off?I?ll do heating air conditioning, too often they go after that low hanging fruit and then other invisetments become too capital intensive.
Taylor says many businesses in the state are eligible to receive free audits from either their utility or the state.
Taylor says this isn?t just about doing the right thing for the environment.
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3:30 ? we want our companies to be stronger in the future. And I think it just makes good old Yankee sense, to get the most out of their dollar so they can spend it somewhere else. It might be to prevent a layoff?instead of working with equipment that is 30% effective, get something that is 60% effective.
One ubiquitous inefficient piece of equipment is the incandescent light bulb.
Edward Milleux of Unitil says replacing them is an easy way to save money.
And a business could start that process with a phone call.
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2:02 you would contact either the utility company or one of our contractors, would go to your business and do a complete lighting inventory. Do a lighting audit. Types of lighting you have. Lighting you need?and we would inventor all the existing equipment and give you recommendations.
Those recommendations could include new bulbs, fixtures, or controls that automatically turn lights on and off.
Another technology available to industry is bio-diesel fuel.
Derrick Greehauer with the Office of Energy and Community Services says with it, you can run a bulldozer on vegetable grease from a Wendy?s fryer
1:28 the boilers in your home or office, bio-diesel can be used in basically anything you pour diesel or number 2 heating oil into. So large equipment, same thing for power generation. Anything that runs on diesel fuel.
Greenhauer says bio-diesel fuel reduces noxious emissions that cause cancer and asthma.
But bio-diesel is a far cry from a silver bullet solution.
When used in vehicles, Greehuauer says it increases nitrogen oxide, which causes smog.
The fuel is also expensive.
It runs about 30 cents a gallon more than diesel fuel.
But Greenhauer says the benefits aren?t just limited to reducing harmful emissions.
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:09 bio-diesel is actually a fuel you don?t have to drill for. It?s being produced in Iowa, MN, states farmers are growing soy bean and rape seed. That fuel stock can be turned in to bio-diesel. This isn?t something we have to import from other countries?
And, landfills and incinerators lose their used up grease business.
Rich D?Aquany, came to Concord to talk about one of the more cutting edge technologies- fuel cells.
6:28 it?s a device that takes hydrogen and it may be that it needs to take gas within it, to convert it, to hydrogen, and oxygen, mixes them?produces electricity and water. It?s more of an electro-chemical process versus a machine, with moving components that can fail by moving, friction, requiring lubrication.
What makes fuel cells attractive to people is they operate without combustion.
The only emission from certain fuel cells is water.
Also they are more efficient than internal combustion engines.
Scientists talk about fuel cell engines one day replacing combustible engines.
Toyota and Honda already have prototypes on the road in California.
But D?Aquany says the technology is expensive.
So it?s important for businesses to target high priority parts of their operation.
For example, a bank may want fuel cells to run its lights, computers and on-line banking.
But D?Aquany says the company needs to assess where fuel cells fit best.
The Department of Energy?s Scott Hutchins says whether it?s fuel cells, bio-diesel or some other technology the DOE is interested.
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:25 through our support of new technologies, we have a significant budget to identify technologies whose primary purpose is to improve the environmental performance of the facility. The benefit to the DOE is we get energy reductions. Most new technologies improve productivity, lower environmental emissions and save energy.
Hutchins says the department provides free software to help businesses become more efficient facilities. For NHPR News, I?m DG.
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