The Boilermakers are turning to the latest in gas-fired power to create the steam they need.
Purdue University and Duke Energy confirmed this week that operations have begun on the gas-fired combined heat and power (CHP) plant at the West Lafayette, Indiana, campus. The 16-MW CHP facility is owned and operated by Duke, which is selling the electricity and heat to the school.
The facility will be cleaner burning and reduce emissions compared to Purdue’s previous power generation fleet, including the coal and gas-fired Wade Utility Plant which emitted more than 310,000 pounds of carbon dioxide in 2019, according to environmental reporting.
"Duke Energy continues to be a dependable partner, open to innovative ideas and process improvements," said Purdue University President Mitch Daniels. "This collaborative relationship has yielded a new plant that moves us further down the path of carbon reduction and meets the needs of both partners more efficiently than either of us could have achieved alone."
The new plant is projected to reduce CO2 by approximately 50,000 metric tons, or the equivalent of removing 10,000 passenger vehicles from the road.
Construction on the Duke CHP plant took a little more than two years. In April 2019, Purdue trustees approved leasing of the land to Duke Energy for 35 years.
"We're creating a reliable source of steam for Purdue's power needs and an efficient source of power for our Indiana customers," said Duke Energy Indiana President Stan Pinegar. "We've collaborated with one of our leading customers to add a new, cleaner resource to our generation fleet."
Related stories
Georgia Tech report: CHP Peachy option to cut Energy costs, Health savings
Creating New Campus Power for Future Generations: A UConn Case study
Subscribe to our free newsletter for More Insights into the Mission-Critical Energy Transition
CHP takes heat created in the power generation process and utilizes it for campus needs such as steam. The Duke CHP plant can produce up to 150,000 pounds of steam per hour, according to reports.
The energy efficiency comes from producing both heat and electricity from a single fuel resource. An earlier report indicated that close to 260 U.S. college campuses are home to 2,635 MW of CHP energy capacity.
-- -- --
(Rod Walton, senior editor for EnergyTech, is a 14-year veteran of covering the energy industry both as a newspaper and trade journalist. He can be reached at [email protected]).
