What is CHP
Combined heat and power (CHP) is the generation of electricity and useful heat from the same item of plant. In most CHP installations, the electricity displaces some of the power which would be bought from the local supply network and the heat recovered from the engine supplements or in some cases replaces heat from the sites boilers.
CHP systems can also provide cooling through the use of absorption chillers that utilise heat as their energy source.
Traditionally, CHP systems involve the use of a reciprocating piston engine (of the same type as you would find in van or lorry), fuelled by gas, to spin a generator thus producing electricity. The heat from the engine water cooling and exhaust are used to produce hot water, via heat exchangers. NewEnCo supplies a range of traditional reciprocating CHP packages.
The Turbec T100 package differs from traditional CHP because the engine is a gas turbine rather than a piston engine. The technology uses a gas combustion process to propel a turbine at high speed. This turbine then rotates an alternator which generates electricity. The hot gases from the combustion process then pass through a water filled heat exchanger which produces hot water.