Capstone Turbine Corporation - Low Emission Turbines for Cogeneration/CHP

Capstone Turbine Corp. develops, manufactures, sells and services extremely low-emission turbine systems. Often, the emissions are so low, they beat the toughest global standards. The Capstone turbine generator has just one moving part, meaning these reliable turbines have no liquid lubricants or coolants to maintain or dispose of. State-of-the-art electronics convert high-frequency power from the turbine generator into useful 50Hz or 60Hz three-phase output.

Capstone turbines are used in cogeneration / CHP applications in a multitude of markets: hospitals, hotels, schools, manufacturers, large retailers, wastewater-treatment plants, agriculture and landfills, among others. These low-maintenance, ultra-low emission turbines range from 30kW to 1000kW solutions and are scalable from 30kW to 10MW.

CAPSTONE TURBINES – CLEAN, GREEN, RELIABLE SOURCE OF ENERGY

Capstone turbines operate on a variety of gaseous or liquid fuels, emit very low emissions and don’t need oil, coolant or other hazardous materials to operate, making Capstone turbines one of the cleanest and most reliable energy sources available today.

LOW-MAINTENANCE TURBINES

It’s not unusual for Capstone’s low-emission turbines to operate non-stop for 8,000 hours before needing just two hours of maintenance to replace the air filter, igniter and external fuel filter. Capstone maintenance is easy and quick since the air-bearing turbines have only one moving part and don’t need a drop of lubricating oil or coolant to operate. As a result, the overall life-cycle costs of Capstone turbines are thousands of dollars less than other power-generation systems.

COMBINED HEAT & POWER (CHP), COMBINED COOLING, HEATING & POWER (CCHP)

Capstone turbines generate electrical power and useable heat. The usable heat can provide hot water, steam or drive an absorption chiller for air-conditioning. Onsite CHP is far more fuel-efficient and environmentally beneficial than utility power and boiler heating. The grid-parallel electricity produced lowers a facility's demand on utility power and dramatically cuts monthly power bills.

In addition, clean, efficient power from Capstone Turbine offers a variety of societal and customer benefits including:

• Efficient use of fuel – by recycling waste heat from the electric generation process, efficiencies in excess of 80% are achievable
• Reduced emissions – using EPA and DOE data, there is tremendous reduction of NOx emissions from the traditional versus combined heat and power solution
• Reduced greenhouse gas or CO2
• Reduced generation costs – a well-designed project can reduce total utility bills up to 20%
• Support to the utility grid – gas-fired distributed generation provides consistent output without constant fluctuations
• Renewable fuel option – turbines have the ability to run on renewable landfill and digester gases as well as natural gas

SECURE POWER

Today's businesses face a difficult situation – continuity of electric power. Capstone turbines can operate connected to a utility grid or provide stand-alone power to critical loads. Transition time between these two operating modes is less than ten seconds, allowing customers to secure their critical power needs.

Traditional backup gensets most often sit as idle assets, and then do not always start when needed. The new paradigm is to operate Capstone turbines as continuous power supplies – often saving money in CHP, CCHP or resource-recovery applications, and quickly transitioning to standby power when needed.

RESOURCE RECOVERY AND CHP

Capstone turbines cleanly burn waste gases such as methane and other toxic gases from landfills, sewage treatment plants, livestock farms and food waste processing facilities to create renewable power and heat. Most sites flare those gases or let them vent into the air, a practice that is highly polluting and damages the Earth's ozone layer.