Arrow Linen is a commercial laundry in Brooklyn, NY. Every day, Arrow’s employees launder tons of table linens and uniforms for New York’s hotels and restaurants. It takes a lot of energy to turn soiled and grimy into spotless and tidy. In NY City, this energy is exceptionally expensive. Arrow Linen is using cogeneration to dramatically reduce operating costs and improve competitiveness.
The CHP plant we designed for Arrow Linen is built around two Coast Intelligen units of 150kW each. These are low emission natural gas–fired engine sets, with induction generators. Waste heat is recovered as hot water. This waste heat is used to preheat make–up water for the domestic hot water tanks and steam boilers (offsetting existing gas usage). The savings generated by the CHP plant financed several long–deferred capital projects. Among these is a complete electric service upgrade that included proper connection of the CHP power. A micro-processor controlled utility parallel system was installed to meet ConEd interconnection guidelines. The CHP plant is situated on the roof of the building. Since Arrow Linen is located in an upscale residential neighborhood, this necessitated sophisticated sound attenuation. This clean and quiet plant demonstrates that distributed generation can be integrated into a densely populated urban neighborhood.Energy Concepts is an engineering firm with a singular commitment: To maximize energy efficiency in our clients’ facilities. With over 60 CHP (Combined Heat & Power) plants, we are the leader in planning, design, permitting, commissioning and upkeep of on-site CHP plants. Our plants range from 150kW to 10MW and include gas-fueled engines, fuel cells and microturbines.