City of Oneida Wastewater Treatment Plant Expands Anaerobic Bio-Gas Cogen System

The City of Oneida recently expanded the size of their Capstone Microturbine cogeneration system from 600kW to 1000kW. The expansion is part of a multi-year investment into the treatment plant designed to handle the growing wastewater demand. The original installation of Capstone’s 5-bay generator enclosure was part of this scalable solution. Three of the bays are currently equipped with 200kW modular microturbine engines and two of the bays were left empty. The current upgrade will encompass adding 2 more 200kW microturbine engines into these vacant bays.

The facility utilizes anaerobic digester technology as part of their process. The anaerobic digestion helps with solids reduction, and also generates the useful byproduct of methane. This methane is recovered and pro-actively used by the Capstone microturbines to generate electricity as well as useful waste-heat that is pumped back into the anaerobic digestion process. The benefits of the cogeneration system are multifold including:

  • Lower energy costs (both electric and natural gas)
  • Enhanced reliability and resilience
  • Effective re-use of methane that is naturally generated by the process
  • Environmental compliance of using methane versus flaring or venting

Capstone's Signature Series microturbines, utilizing a green energy technology with integrated heat recovery modules (HRMs), provide an industry-leading combined heat and power (CHP) solution that is lightweight, quiet, and compact - the perfect complement to this sustainable design and construction in New York State. Capstone microturbines enable customers to meet their environmental, energy savings, and resiliency goals by complying with the world's most stringent emissions standards.

For customers with limited capital or short-term needs, RSP Systems offers rental systems. For more information please contact: sales@cogennyc.com

To date, Capstone has shipped over 10,000 units to 83 countries and estimates that, in FY21, it saved customers over $217 million in annual energy costs and approximately 397,000 tons of carbon. Total savings over the last three years are estimated at 1,115,100 tons of carbon and $698 million in annual energy savings.