Page 27 - Sustainable On-Site CHP Systems Design, Construction, and Operations

6 CHP B a s i c s

burden per delivered on-site kilowatt of electricity by a factor of approximately 2 to 3.
Furthermore, by utilizing on-site power generation (versus a remote utility) the facility
can benefit from waste-heat-powered simultaneous cooling and heating, further reduc-
ing net facility electric power demands. Additionally, reducing associated demands of
fossil fuel for electric power generation by only 15 percent along with an overall reduc-
tion in net carbon dioxide emission rate would increase above referenced CHP benefit
to a factor of 2.6 to 3.3. And these results can occur without further investment in trans-
mission infrastructure needed to eliminate current electric power grid bottlenecks
during periods of high daily peak demand.

History
The rise of engineering in a professional sense had its origins in the eighteenth century
as it became principally applied to fields in which mathematics and science converged
to permit methods and machines to evolve more rapidly from innovative ideas to prac-
tical applications involving mechanical means that could substitute for animal- and
human-labor-powered devices in a more efficient and cost-effective manner.
Similarly the pursuits of earlier military and civil engineers whose unique skills and
personal insights honed from ancient mathematics became applied to the construction
of massive structures, ingenious mechanisms, and military machines. In the mid- to
late-nineteenth-century improvements in vehicle design by such innovators as Diesel
and Westinghouse merged with earlier mid- to late-eighteenth century newly found
energy sources introduced by Savery, Watt, and others giving rise to the development
of specialized machines and tools which formed the basis for mechanical engineering.
With the advent of electricity, electronics, chemistry, and physics evolving indepen-
dently from the experimental findings of Franklin, Faraday, Maxwell, Olm, Hertz, See-
back, Peltier, and others led to electrical engineering being founded. Industrial-scale
manufacturing demanded new materials and new processes developed in the late-
nineteenth century and led to the need for large-scale production of chemicals from
which a new industry was created dedicated to the development and large-scale manu-
facturing of chemicals in new industrial plants, laying the foundation for chemical
engineering which also evolved from the mid- to late-nineteenth century and acceler-
ated into the early- to mid-twentieth century.
The timely convergence of engineering disciplines within the above time period
gave rise to the Industrial Revolution which first emerged in England and rapidly
spread from there to Europe and America, ultimately leading to diverse modern era
engineering professions which continue to evolve and bifurcate at a more rapid pace
today in response to growing human industrial and health needs, and perceived global
challenges with uncertain outcomes.
All of these disciplines are evident in the use of combined heat and power. The first
recorded use of combining heat and power can be traced back to the smokejack, which
1
was introduced to Europe in the fourteenth century. The smokejack was an apparatus
which turned a fireplace roasting spit, getting its power from a turbine wheel which
was set in motion (i.e., rotated) by the hot flue gas rising in the chimney. The smokejack
was essentially the first hot-air turbine-powered equipment, and was the forefather of
propellers and gas turbines. By the early 1600s, engineers had figured out that they
could get the smokejacks to rotate even without a fire burning by injecting steam from
boilers into the exhaust stack, and engineers were busy experimenting with steam-driven