Consortium helps companies boost energy efficiency

A joint effort among the University of Missouri and state and federal government agencies aims to help local businesses cope with rising energy costs.

The university’s Industrial Assessment Center (IAC), Missouri Enterprise and the Missouri Department of Natural Resources’ Energy Center are involved in a partnership to help companies make their operations more energy efficient. This can save companies an average of $55,000 to $60,000 a year, says Bin Wu, director of the MU center and a professor of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering who runs the center along with Assistant Director Sanjeev Khanna.

A national center promoting industrial energy efficiency, the MU College of Engineering’s IAC opened for business two years ago. Funded by about $1 million in grants, including a five-year $900,000 commitment from the U.S. Department of Energy, the center helps small- and mediumsize businesses improve their energy efficiency and productivity, minimize waste, and prevent pollution.

The MU center offers free energy audits for businesses and performs outreach, education and research activities, Wu said. To qualify for a free energy audit, businesses can have no more than 500 employees. Medium-size manufacturers are defined as those that pay between $100,000 and $2.5 million a year in utilities.

“Thousands of companies would benefit from our energy audits,” Wu said. “It’s a direct impact on the profitability and sustainability of companies. Every dollar saved is a dollar profit for the company.”

The center often works in tandem with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources’ Energy Center to provide the energy audits for as many as 16 manufacturing plants a year, and also works with the energy center to host industrial energy efficiency workshops.

The Missouri Energy Center sponsored the IAC’s Department of Energy application, said Frank Cunningham, energy engineer with the Missouri Energy Center and a Columbia resident.

“We provide technical assistance and guidance on audits, and we assist them on workshops,” Cunningham said.

Half a dozen companies have applied for energy audits so far. Locally, the IAC worked with Quaker Oats a few years ago and plans to work with 3M this year. Wu said the center’s territory is based in Missouri, but requests have also come from neighboring states.

Missouri Enterprise, funded by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, also works with the IAC. Because of the organization’s 25- year track record and purpose of helping small and medium-size companies compete through training and hands-on assistance, it made sense to work together.

“If you look on their balance sheet, energy consumption is a big-ticket item,” said Harold Zinn, Missouri Enterprise’s vice president of corporate communications. “The cost of energy is a huge hit to them. By working together, we can really help the companies’ bottom line.”

One of NIST’s 59 Manufacturing Extension Partnership centers throughout the country, Missouri Enterprise, based in Rolla, helps the IAC find new clients through its nine area business managers across the state. Zinn said the usual return on investment is about 100 to one.

In addition to performing energy audits, the IAC program trains young engineers in the use of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies in manufacturing and industrial processes, so the centers are based at universities. One of 26 such centers funded by the federal energy department at universities in 23 states, the MU center is the only one currently operating in Missouri.

Wu stresses that his organization is not connected with the state and has no regulatory function; its function is to promote best practices in energy efficiency. A large component of the operation is the education of graduate students who perform the audits. Wu said he has one student developing energy efficiency software for his master’s degree thesis.

Businesses interested in the IAC’s services should phone Bin Wu at 882-5540 or send him an e-mail message at [email protected]. IAC’s Web site is found at iac.missouri.edu. Although the free audits are available only to small- and medium-size businesses, Wu said any business with an energy concern should feel free to contact the center for advice.