WVU Team Helps Chinese Tackle Energy Efficiency

By Kasey, Pam

MORGANTOWN – By helping Chinese industry operate more efficiently, West Virginia University’s Industrial Assessment Center is easing the fast-growing nation’s demand for energy and improving its environment.

The IAC also may help reduce the U.S. trade deficit.

A special industrial assessment team, assembled and led by Industries of the Future-West Virginia coordinator Carl Irwin, traveled to China in August.

The team included WVU Industrial Assessment Center Director Bhaskaran Gopalakrishnan, who goes by “Gopala” and who Irwin said is “one of the leading people in the country for energy efficiency.” It also included Ken Means, director of WVU Projects with Industry and an expert on industrial systems, and WVU doctoral student Subodh Chaudhari. Qingyun Sun of WVU’s Natural Resource Analysis Center made the original contacts in China and joined the team as well.

Industry in Shanxi

The team had been asked to consider assessing the efficiency of three manufacturing facilities near Taiyuan, capital of the north- central province of Shanxi, according to Irwin.

On Aug. 6, they visited the Shanxi New Oriental Aluminum Company, Irwin said.

“My impression was, ‘What are we doing here? This place is newer than anything in West Virginia, if not in the U.S.,”‘ he recalled.

But on visiting the Shanxi Hentong Energy Co. chromium ferroalloy plant that afternoon, they found an older, less technically advanced facility.

“They said energy was about 50 percent of their cost of production,” Irwin said.

The timing for an assessment was good, because the company was planning for the installation of a third reduction furnace.

Irwin said the company president agreed to implement any recommendations that were cost effective.

On Aug. 7, the team visited the third plant, Shanxi Jiaochen YiWang, Ferroalloy Co.

“This plant was very efficient, well run, much newer than Hentong,” Irwin said.

Energy was only about 30 percent of its cost of operation.

The team chose to do an in-depth assessment at Hentong and, according to Gopala, has recently finished drafting its report. “We were able to develop an opportunity to use the heat content in their exhaust to develop power for them or to provide comfort heating for their offices in the winter,” Gopala said. “Either one would work. There’s a strong possibility that both would work.”

The plant was a little less efficient than American plants in the same industry, he felt, mainly because the machinery could be maintained a bit better.

The team also revisited New Oriental Aluminum, where they installed data loggers on the air compressors. They estimated heat losses at other points in the smelting process, leading to a recommendation to insulate some of the furnaces.

Irwin was impressed with how smoothly the evaluation process went.

“You had Gopala and his team and the Chinese chief engineer, the other engineers and other employees all in hard hats and all working together very smoothly,” Irwin said.

“It was just incredible to see the cooperation. It was very impressive.”

The assessment reports soon will be finalized and sent to China, Gopala said.

Trade Deficit

When Irwin returned to Beijing, he met with representatives of the U.S. Department of Energy Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Program, who were there developing additional energy assessment opportunities.

It’s part of an effort to reduce the U.S. trade deficit, Irwin explained.

The idea is for U.S. energy efficiency experts to provide analysis and recommend energy efficiency measures.

Those measures, in turn, may be implemented through purchases from U.S. companies – the waste energy recycling services of Recycled Energy Development LLC of Westmont, Ill., or the City of Industry, Calif.-based international company Clayton Industries, Gopala mentioned as examples.

DOE reported in mid-September that it completed a memorandum of understanding with China’s National Development Reform Committee to conduct energy audits at up to 12 additional facilities.

That effort could involve the WVU team in further energy assessments at DOE’s discretion.

“If they think we are right for that, then they will contact us,” Gopala said.

The chances of that may be high, because WVU team was the first to conduct assessments in China.

“I’ve been getting calls from (DOE) asking me about my experience, consulting me in terms of how to do an assessment,” Gopala said. “They’re interested in how to do it and pitfalls. I’ve been getting positive feedback.”

There are plenty of opportunities in Shanxi province, according to Irwin, where more than 40 ferroalloy plants operate.

He concluded during his visit that WVU might help in some small way.

“This country is on a roll and is not looking back,” Irwin wrote in his trip diary. “Nothing we do is really going to slow them down or significantly speed them up. What we can do is engage with them to help reduce their demand for energy and to improve the environment.”

Copyright State Journal Corporation Sep 28, 2007

(c) 2007 State Journal, The. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.