The 1995 recipients of the Governor's Award for Excellence in Energy Efficiency are The Edison Materials Technology Center, on behalf of a team of sponsors, and The Lincoln Electric Company. Molecular sieve towers that remove carbon dioxide and provide low dewpoint, coupled with catalytic oxygen and carbon monoxide shift converters, produce the precise high quality nitrogen gas needed for a process application along with steam for plant use. This system uses approximately half of the electricity as current commercial processes, and NOx and CO emissions are almost eliminated.
Capital cost is low and payback is typically less than two years.
The Lincoln Electric Company is an industrial motor manufacturer in Cleveland. The FBNG system has cut electric energy consumption by the Lincoln Electric Company to one-third of that normally consumed by other methods. The first winner of the Governor's Award for Excellence in Energy Efficiency was PPG Industries, Inc. for finding ways to dispose of contaminated waste with minimal impact on the environment. Even waste water can present a disposal problem for manufacturers. After water is used for cleaning in some types in some types of manufacturing, it can be hazardous and must be disposed of properly-often at great expense.