Pipeline Heat Project Recaptures Energy With Chevy’s Help
- 12 years ago
Pipeline Heat Project Recaptures Energy With Chevy’s Help
When a jet airplane takes off, its gas turbine engines emit energy to provide the necessary lift to get the plane off the ground. The evidence of that energy is in the squiggly waves you see trailing the plane as it rises into the sky.
But gas turbine engines aren’t just used for air travel. They factor in to Chevrolet’s most recent carbon reduction project.
A natural gas pipeline from Canada crosses Minnesota on its way to its final destination in Chicago. Along the way there are compressor stations spaced every 40 or 50 miles that use 39,000-horsepower gas turbine engines to recompress the gas – a necessary step to keep it flowing. But these mammoth engines also give off exhaust at temperatures in the range of 900 degrees Fahrenheit, real energy that is wasted when it escapes into the air.
To recover and use this energy, Basin Electric, a North Dakota-based consumer-owned electric utility, teamed up with
When a jet airplane takes off, its gas turbine engines emit energy to provide the necessary lift to get the plane off the ground. The evidence of that energy is in the squiggly waves you see trailing the plane as it rises into the sky.
But gas turbine engines aren’t just used for air travel. They factor in to Chevrolet’s most recent carbon reduction project.
A natural gas pipeline from Canada crosses Minnesota on its way to its final destination in Chicago. Along the way there are compressor stations spaced every 40 or 50 miles that use 39,000-horsepower gas turbine engines to recompress the gas – a necessary step to keep it flowing. But these mammoth engines also give off exhaust at temperatures in the range of 900 degrees Fahrenheit, real energy that is wasted when it escapes into the air.
To recover and use this energy, Basin Electric, a North Dakota-based consumer-owned electric utility, teamed up with