Production Waste Turns into Renewable Energy

[RenewableEnergyAccess.com] The Sustainable Energy Fund of Central Eastern PA offered Kountry Kraft a low interest loan to pay for the housing, equipment and installation of an energy-saving biomass combustion unit from Advanced Recycling Equipment. The Challenger Combustion System will convert the custom cabinetry manufacturer’s waste wood scraps and sawdust to steam heat for heating its offices and manufacturing plant (the steam also provides the heat for finishing furnaces, where wood finishes are dried). It eliminates the need to send waste wood scraps and sawdust to landfills, reduces particulate emissions in smoke by 87.5 percent, and provides heat energy for the facility and its manufacturing processes, replacing natural gas and decreasing electrical power consumption. SEF anticipates that Kountry Kraft will save nearly 2.5 million kWh of electricity over the next year — in addition to no longer depending on natural gas for heat. The energy savings gained from the Challenger is expected to pay for the system in less than three years.