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CHP technologies utilize both electricity and heat generated from a single source. These systems recover heat that normally would be wasted in an electricity generator, and utilize to produce one or more of the following: steam, hot water, heating, desiccant dehumidification or cooling. Through the use of CHP systems, the fuel that would otherwise be used to produce heat or steam in a separate unit is saved.
CHP offers dramatic advantages in efficiency and much lower air pollution than conventional technologies. In conventional conversion of fuel to electricity, over two thirds of the energy input is discarded as heat to the environment. By recycling this waste heat, CHP systems achieve efficiencies of 60% to 80% — a dramatic improvement over the average 33% efficiency of conventional fossil-fueled power plants. Higher efficiencies reduce air emissions of nitrous oxides, sulfer dioxide, mercury, particulate matter, and carbon dioxide.
A wide variety of CHP technologies generate electricity and meet thermal energy needs (direct heat, hot water, steam, process heating and/or cooling) simultaneously, at the point of use. By contrast, conventional generation of electric power discards much of the heat generated during energy production, and conventional thermal energy generation often misses the opportunity to generate power. The graphic below depicts 189 units of fuel required for a separate heat and power system to produce the same amount of energy as 100 units of fuel from a CHP system.
 CHP makes greater use of fuel inputs by utilizing discarded heat and producing system efficiencies that can range from 60 to 80 percent. Federal research and development is focused on integration of prime movers such as turbines, microturbines, and reciprocating engines with thermally activated technologies (chillers, dehumidification, etc) for plug-and-play integrated CHP systems. This work includes the development of necessary controls for seamless integration into buildings systems. Additional information on these distributed energy devices is available in a technology characterizations document (PDF 2.4 MB). Download Acrobat Reader.
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