Natural gas is currently the source of about 50% of our energy supply. Our heat-intensive manufacturing processes also require the use of other fossil fuels, including coal. As long as coal exists as an inexpensive and effective source of fuel, it will continue to be used to power manufacturing. We understand that it is the way in which coal is used that can significantly reduce its environmental impact.
Eastman works hard to use coal efficiently. According to the U.S. Energy Protection Agency, 50% of coal’s energy is wasted when used in conventional separate heat and power applications, which increases to greater than 60% if it is only converted to electricity in a conventional power plant.
Because Eastman needs both steam and electricity to make our products, we use a highly efficient process called cogeneration at our largest manufacturing sites. Otherwise known as Combined Heat and Power (CHP), cogeneration represents the concurrent production of electricity and heat emanating from a single source.
Cogeneration systems recover heat that would typically be wasted during electricity generation, therefore saving fuel that would otherwise be used to produce heat or steam.
Eastman’s deployment of cogeneration makes it one of the most efficient energy users in the chemical industry.
Using cogeneration enables us to convert more than 70% of the energy we obtain from fossil fuel into power and steam for our manufacturing processes.
Eastman Chemical Company's Coal Gasification Facility is Located in Kingsport, Tennessee
In fact, we save a large amount of GHG emissions — the equivalent of taking 131,000 cars off the road each year — by using cogeneration at just one of our facilities. Eastman now meets more than 90 percent of our global electricity needs with cogeneration.
At our site in Longview, Texas, we also have a CHP plant that makes both electricity and steam using natural gas as fuel. We sell our surplus energy resulting from cogeneration to companies and homes as far north as Kansas City.
Eastman is constantly exploring other ways to practically and economically reduce our use of fossil fuels, lower our overall carbon footprint, improve our energy efficiency and minimize our impact on the environment.
Source: Eastman Chemical Company
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