With projects across three countries, the U.S.-based energy company has been providing on-grid and off-grid power solutions via its own small gas turbine generators (also called microturbines) and custom-fit heat exchangers for over ten years. In New York, FlexEnergy Solutions just came through one of its biggest challenges yet, proving to itself and the world that, yes, it can make it anywhere.

FlexEnergy Solutions’ products, including the patented Flex Turbine®, provide uninterrupted power distribution for industries like oil and gas, commercial, industrial, and multi-family residential facilities. That was attractive to the residents of the Sheffield Condominium building in Manhattan, who were looking for just that – a power source that would not fail, no matter what the conditions.

New York is the home of some extremely tough environmental regulations, and the Sheffield’s Board managers were looking to exceed those requirements. They were searching for a way to meet New York’s emission reduction targets and boost the efficiency of power generation. The Flex Turbine unit, complete with Flex’s heat exchanger, fit the bill. A single 333 kW combined heat and power unit is now powering critical loads for the forty-nine-story building. The full gas turbine solution brings an annual estimated energy savings of between $200,000 and $500,000 and a resulting payback in fewer than six years.

“We believe this will demonstrate to the state and city of New York what we can do about greenhouse gas and carbon reduction,” said Flex’s Chief Commercial Officer, Doug Baltzer. “Resiliency was a big driver for them. They wanted to be able to run through any disturbances in power and avoid what has been happening with outages throughout the U.S.”

One of those instances he is referring to is the major winter storm that occurred back in February, which took out much of Texas’ power generation capabilities and left most of the state without power. It should be noted that during that ice storm, Flex Turbines delivered power to Flex’s Texas customers without interruption.

“If you become dependent upon a source of power that’s not naturally reliable, you’re going to want to find ways to get through these types of power interruptions. We fit into what the Sheffield condo Board was aiming to do with combined heat and power for efficiency and carbon reduction.”

That project presented challenges, as most projects do. The only real available space Sheffield could offer was in a utility room in an underground garage. It was not the most spacious place for an ultra-modern power generation unit, but the company made it work. The unit, a GT333S model, had to be partially disassembled to be brought in because of some low overhead clearance issues. Also, the exhaust system, which typically runs out the top, was reengineered to fit within the condominium’s specifications.

“So, we had to design a side exhaust exit for our machine. That will become an option (for other projects) going forward, but it was a first time for this particular installation,” said Chief Executive Officer Mark Schnepel. “The exhaust will be fed into a heat recovery steam generator, so they’ll utilize the waste heat coming off the turbine, which will offset their boiler loads.

Baltzer commended the facility managers in that particular project for being so progressive. “Many of them are trying to get every last drop of juice they can from inefficient, unreliable, dirty equipment they bought in the fifties and sixties,” he said, “and here’s the facility’s ownership group, getting out ahead, asking how they can improve over the next decade or so. It’s really exciting for us to lead these forward-thinking groups in figuring out what is next in terms of energy.”

Schnepel said Flex is working with facilities and organizations throughout the globe to incorporate these methods of efficiency and carbon reduction.

Flex managed through the pandemic fairly well, all things considered, because it supplies critical power to industries that cannot shut down, such as medical, manufacturing, and oil and gas facilities. Baltzer said that the leasing side of Flex’s business did well through 2020 in spite of significant reductions to many customers’ capital budgets. When oil and gas took a severe dip in the last year—Baltzer still admits to being surprised at how low prices dropped—he said that clients appreciated that Flex could work with them through the difficult time. Flex’s scalable, clean power solution was what proved most attractive, he said.

“I think a lot of clients fail to really think about power until it’s absent. No matter how low the economy dropped, it would have cost our customers even more to shut completely down,” said Baltzer. “Budgets and expenses were cut throughout most of last year, but it’s coming back now.”

Schnepel said FlexEnergy Solutions was fortunate to have several existing orders that carried it through, with a great deal of inventory built up in preparation of those orders. But now, many businesses are back up in terms of capacity and have taken a lot of that inventory. A couple of years ago, Flex started designing, manufacturing, and selling heat exchangers in addition to its microturbines. Schnepel called this a “bright spot,” for business during the pandemic, because it helped the company maintain operations. He said many companies continued to invest in power generation, which kept Flex quite busy.

“We’re actually having to add labor now, because the turbine side is returning, and the heat exchanger side never really went away,” he explained. “A lot of investment is going into the next generation of power to run on hydrogen, and the pandemic seems to have accelerated this.”

So, business goes on.

“One startling thing has been the price of materials, like the increases in steel and copper and a lot of components,” said Schnepel. “We’ve seen some price increases that we’ve had to balance and stay on top of or else our costs would go up dramatically. It’s taken a lot of negotiation with our suppliers to make sure those prices remain at least close to where they’ve been in the past.”

Now, with the world beginning to see the end of the pandemic, Schnepel said companies are beginning to view energy in a different, more positive way and are adapting to using it differently, which is to Flex’s ultimate advantage. With a North American power grid designed in the 1950s powering twenty-first-century technology, things need to be done differently.

“I think what we’re experiencing in the market is growing sophistication with how businesses look at energy. It’s no longer just a utility bill, but is a substantial part of their operations,” he said. “That’s driving industries to get creative and to find savings through renewables or incentives, or combining everything into one system that can give them resiliency as well as an opportunity to reduce their carbon footprint.”

Baltzer said he is proud to be part of a company that offers new solutions to old technology. FlexEnergy Solutions helps companies and communities rethink what they have been doing with old, inefficient (dirty) power sources and introducing them to technology that helps reduce costs, improve performance, and provides more efficient operations.

“Customers are asking FlexEnergy for solutions that integrate with new renewable and clean energy sources and how we can become a part of the customer’s microgrid solution,” he continued. “This is how a lot of different sources of energy get combined into one resilient solution. Customers are being driven by the need for clean energy options – for the ability to tie in with wind and solar, and to maximize all sources available for a carbon-neutral solution.”

What that means is that with Flex’s technology, a company can optimize their power sources. They can access solutions to seamless connections to clean energy sources that combine microturbines, wind, and solar instead of strictly getting electricity from unreliable utility grids.

“We feel we can play into that larger picture with the customer who wants to use everything available, and we’re the ones capable of connecting all sources into one,” Schnepel added. “The way the world is going, energy diversity is becoming increasingly important – utilizing different sources of energy such as solar and wind power, battery storage, and generators to help maintain battery charge when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. This diversity will help companies and communities take advantage of different rates rather than just having to rely on what the local power company charges at any given time.”

In the area of power solutions, FlexEnergy Solutions offers services for on- and off-grid power, unique gases, and cogeneration, among others. The company sells and manufactures high temperature heat exchangers for a diverse range of end applications as well as for gas turbine recuperation.

The post Flexible and Sustainable Power Solutions<p class="company">FlexEnergy Solutions</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

The answer is metals and minerals. And you get those through mining.

The Mining Association of Canada’s website mining.ca calls metals and minerals the ‘building blocks’ of the smartphones and computers we rely upon, the vehicles that get us around, the buildings in which we work and live, and the green technologies that may one day save the planet from turning into Mars or Venus-like conditions.

But the industry providing the backbone for the technology boom does not exactly have a reputation for embracing technology itself, and that is where the Centre for Smart Mining (CSM) of Cambrian College comes in. Based in Canada’s mining capital of Sudbury, Ontario, the CSM facilitates new technology adoption for the mining industry, which has lagged in adopting new technology over the years.

CSM Manager Stephen Gravel said his organization focuses on mining technology companies and mining end-users as its main client base. It has expertise in underground technologies, alternative tailings treatment technologies, digital technologies, and battery-powered mining vehicles.

Gravel is quite blunt about the CSM’s reason for existence. “Mainly, I would say, the reason we exist is that the mining sector hasn’t really gone through a technology retrofitting since the 1970s and ‘80s, and with the advent of technology we have in our homes going into mines, companies are having a hard time coming to terms with that new technology,” he explained. “So, what we do is at the center, is, we do pilot studies and proof of concepts and make it easier for them to buy and implement new technology.”

Essentially, the CSM helps businesses in the mining industry focus is mining needs and technology from an applied research and technology skills development perspective. It is all about bringing the mining industry around the world up to date. But why has the industry lagged?

Gravel said this typically happens because of the great cost of deviation from established practices. This is not an industry, he explained, where a company can just try a product in the street like a new car. Any interruption to underground production means loss of profit, and if a mine tunnel is shut down to test new technology, that is a lot of time and money lost.

Something else mining companies have to consider is that testing and adopting new technology is capital sensitive. If a company bought a diesel-powered fleet five years ago, the cost of replacing that equipment with electric vehicles is a huge upfront cost. That is a lot to consider for any company when the current fleet is still working and relatively inexpensive to maintain.

Gravel said that mines have to see new technology adopted by other mines before they will adopt it, which is another hindrance to adopting that new technology.

“That’s not a direct rule. They’ll buy with their eyes, traditionally,” he said, “but they need to see it in operation. They want to see the white papers, the engineering, more so than other industries, like IT for example, and everything they do is bigger and more expensive, so making mistakes with bigger, more expensive things means a lot more risk.”

Everything is huge in mining, Gravel added, and it wears. Where a person who drives a regular vehicle might spend $500 for a set of tires, a mining vehicle may cost tens of thousands of dollars to outfit with new rubber. If a company comes along with a new rubber technology that could be more cost-efficient, a mining company is more likely to say it wants to see proof of the return on investment before it will adopt it.

“So, what we do there is we’ll do demystification through pilot studies so clients will be more apt to buy, and technology companies will get a sale out of it,” said Gravel. “We can also help any skills gap that may come up in maintaining a fleet of vehicles.”

Gravel explained that if a mining company owner has, for example, thirty years of operation, it would stand to reason it would have a roster of heavy-duty equipment mechanics who are accustomed to fixing and maintaining diesel equipment. If that company wants to adopt new battery technology, there will be a significant skills gap among employees on how to maintain and safely operate that new equipment. So, the CSM can create short, purpose-built, customized training courses where it will develop course content to help industry leaders.

Safety is a huge motivator for the CSM as well, especially given that there have been some horrific mining accidents in the past. Making mining technology safer is more important than ever, and the CSM works with partners that have innovations for simple but important things like the air mine workers breathe when they are so far underground.

“When people think of electric vehicles, they’ll think of Tesla or wonder what’s Toyota going to do in the future but not this industry, and we need to think of it,” he said. “For every horsepower of diesel equipment operating underground, we have to supply the appropriate amount of air coming from the surface – at great cost – using ventilation, and the added cost of ventilation in mining is really fuelling this rapid technology adoption. A lot of people don’t really know about that.”

Sudbury is known for its mining industry, having been mining nickel for over a century. Gravel says several companies in the Northern Ontario city are talking about purchasing between 250 to 300 electric vehicles for mine use in the next four years, which Gravel says can be considered an important move. The electric vehicle version of the typical diesel vehicle is usually twice as expensive, which one possible vehicle reaching upwards of $1 million.

“That’s a huge investment, so we’re trying to make sure their investment in those vehicles is less risky by providing the workforce with the technology and techniques to adopt them,” he said.

Asked what he is most proud of, Gravel does not hesitate. The CSM’s work with underground robotics makes him want to, in his words, “shout from the rooftops.” In the last two decades, he said, the industry has seen controlled underground vehicles coming closer to looking like an X-box game controller. A recently-finished project from a company called Clickmox has users operate underground 5G enabled drones to scan mines. Those just starting in life and trying to figure out what they want to do, Gravel advises, should consider mining, as it is high tech and can take you around the world.

Being part of a college, students are an integral part of the CSM. In fact, for every industry project involving the CSM, the centre’s mandate states it must include student researchers, so whenever it works with a company, a student of a related discipline is there to add value.

“We want to be able to give them an immersive experience,” explained Gravel. “And who better to hire at the end of a project than a student who has worked on that project?”

As early as the fall of this year, the CSM will start to offer students some of the materials it has created for clients in its electric vehicles program. Cambrian College in particular has been looking into connected devices underground, the centre is watching the industry to figure out where the gaps are.

Gravel is proud of how the CSM keeps a close relationship with industry partners, such as FiComm Technologies, Sofvie Inc., Ionic Mechatronics, and Laurentian University.

“It’s not just about showing new equipment or about meeting a new engineer we just brought on board,” he said. “We always talk about how we can help, how we are able to go to industry and get a laundry list of things that keeps them up at night and provide solutions.”

Other projects the CSM has worked on include Underground 3D cavity scanner design and development, battery-electric drivetrain development, digital lockout solutions for pneumatic systems, wearable health monitoring for miners, and crusher feed optimization using machine learning. Check out the Center for Smart Mining at Cambrian College’s website to find out more.

The post Bringing Mining Into the 21st Century<p class="company">The Centre for Smart Mining (CSM) of Cambrian College</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

The history of Canada’s most easterly province is centred around the fishing industry, whether codfish in the Grand Banks or shellfish in its various bays. Early European explorers would report to their royals that one could practically walk across the water because there were so many codfish, and Newfoundlanders and Labradorians have become synonymous with the fishing industry.

It is a big reason why Grieg Seafood chose Newfoundland to expand its salmon farming operations in 2014. Setting up in Marystown, on the island’s Burin Peninsula was a natural choice, given the centuries of fishing experience from the residents. You go where the work experience is, and seven years later, company representatives Kristen Anstey and Andrew Tucker say it is obvious that Grieg chose the right place to do business.

Utilizing some of the most state-of-the-art facilities, Grieg Seafood Newfoundland raises salmon for markets in Canada and the U.S. Eastern Seaboard, and the methods are almost the stuff of science fiction. They raise the fish from the egg right to adulthood, after eggs are shipped in from Benchmark Genetics Iceland and incubated in temperature-controlled units. After the fish hatch, they are transferred to large, freshwater tanks, where they remain until they reach five grams in weight.

To prepare for life in seawater, the young salmon are transferred to the smoltification building where they undergo this transformation of smoltification and prepare for life in salt water. After smoltification and once the fish have reached 50 grams, they are transferred again to the largest facility for continued growout in saltwater until they are transferred to sea cages to complete the last 16 months of their growth. The process is designed to imitate the salmon’s natural habitat, and that is important, according to Grieg Seafood Newfoundland aquaculture technician Andrew Tucker.

“Salmon need a system that is as close to their natural environment as possible,” he said. “As compared to other species, they can be difficult to work with, and it’s very important to have the best and most specialized system possible to make them grow.”

As businesses go, this is an interesting one. There are not many others that have to worry that a finicky fish may spit out food it does not like but that happens, said Tucker.

“You can actually see them spit out food that isn’t palatable to them. They’ll just spit it out and swim away, and we need them to eat,” he said. “So, they require particular feed, and they can be very sensitive to extreme water conditions.”

He added that this is a very challenging process because it is one that completely changes the fish’s internal anatomy. Employees have to watch salt levels constantly and maintain all the mineral levels to transform these fish throughout their lives.

When fish farming became popular a couple of decades ago, it was met with some concern for the environmental impact. Tucker says Grieg Seafood Newfoundland does everything it can to be as sustainable as possible and likes to show off the sustainable part of aquaculture. Its facilities use recirculated water with what it calls a recirculating aquaculture system (RAS) that reuses the same water repeatedly, using treatment and biofilters to reduce the amount of waste and reduce the water used. Workers also treat the solid wastes that are produced from the fish themselves. The collected waste is treated to be redistributed as fertilizer or compost additive for other areas of agriculture. This results in very little waste from the operations as even the product that are considered waste can be used in other industries..

It all seems like a lot of effort just to get a food source that ideally, we should be able to get with a rod and reel, right? Actually, in most areas, those days are gone. Sure, you can still take the kids on a weekend fishing excursion, but the Global Aquaculture Alliance stated recently on its website that, by 2030, approximately sixty-two percent of all seafood produced for human consumption will come from aquaculture. When the alliance stated that a year and a half ago, the current number was fifty percent.

With a number like that, spanning all ocean species, one would have to wonder why Grieg would just stick with salmon only. “There are examples of integrated farms, especially in Asian countries,” said Tucker, “but with salmon, they’re a difficult species, and we need to be able to have the most specialized and best system to make them grow.”

Grieg Seafood is based in Norway and is one of the world’s leading salmon farming companies. The company has a worldwide target for this year of 80,000 harvested tons of product and an annual 130,000 tons by2025. Grieg’s aquaculture farms are also in operation in British Columbia, as well as Shetland in the UK and Finnmark and Rogaland in Norway. The company employs more than nine hundred people worldwide.

Grieg got its start in the early 1990s by Norwegian entrepreneur Per Greig Jr. and the shipping-based Grieg family in Western Norway. A look through the company’s website shows a community-based approach to its operations around the world and at home in Newfoundland. Kristin Anstey, Grieg Seafood’s human resources advisor in Newfoundland, said the company is taking on charitable challenges to support the area community.

“We like to do everything local as much as possible, a lot of our workers are from Newfoundland originally,” she said. “We do a lot of donations with the local hospital and fundraisers with the local community, and we’ll try and partner with local businesses as much as possible to try and bring business to them.”

Grieg in Newfoundland recently worked with the local food bank in its Marystown location to put more product on its shelves. It has also collected items for a local women’s shelter and put recycling proceeds toward the area hospital.

“We’ve done a lot, and we’re proud of what we’ve accomplished,” she said. “We strive to do the best we can and to bring quality to our community, and we just hope that what we do helps the community. We’ll keep trying to do our best.”

Like most small areas, community is important in Newfoundland and Labrador. In recent years, the province has seen an outward migration of its young people, as they find career opportunities in places like Alberta and Ontario. Anstey said she is proud of what Grieg represents in terms of the local job market.

“I really think that this project is good for [this area],” she said. “It’s creating jobs, and it’s attracting youth and young families to the area. We’re an ageing population, but the sea is starting to flourish again and bring the youth back home.”

Anstey is proof of this. She is from Marystown and moved away for her education in the United States and Europe. Like many young Newfoundlanders, she never thought she would work at home ever again, but jumped at the chance when Grieg came calling, and she realized where the opportunity was.

Of the Marystown location’s salmon, about seventy percent will likely end up in Boston and New York. Plans are underway to utilize a local processing facility in the nearby town of St. Lawrence, where the local population has every bit as much experience in fisheries, for the salmon once harvesting begins.

Tucker does not see much in the way of expansion for Grieg in Marystown, except for another building to add further smoltification utility to further the salmon’s development. He said what puts Grieg above the competition is having advanced technology that rivals any similar aquaculture business in North America and having one of the largest land-based facilities.

But Tucker said that competition is not much of an issue. Aquaculture “is not that competitive,” he said with a smile over video chat. “The industry works together a lot. We collaborate to make it better for everyone. I think that’s better for all of us.”

And should you be looking for a recipe, try marinating the salmon in equal parts brown sugar and soy sauce overnight, with a touch of lemon pepper on the fillets. It is fantastic.

The post Swimming Upstream<p class="company">Grieg Seafood</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

“People often ask, how long before we go back? But the only answer is, longer than I thought,” spokesman for the air-system manufacturer Bruce Wendel says. “But the U.S. was a big growth area; it was so good to reach that goal, then [the pandemic] happened and we got locked out.”

Allied Blower has been providing services in the areas of dust control, industrial ventilation, and pneumatic conveyance since 1974. The company also supplies filter bags and parts, gas cleaning and volatile organic compound (VOC) control. The company deals in combustible dust removal, wood pellets and biomass and spark detection and arrest.

It’s an impressive list of services and features. As well, Wendel says, Allied’s management have done everything that could be done to minimize economic effects of the coronavirus. The result is that Allied was in the fortunate position to do more for employees than some other companies.

“When the pandemic was becoming an issue in March, we were proactive about it,” Wendel says. “We had people tracking themselves, we quickly downsized, had people working at home – some on reduced salary – rather than put them on layoff. Our goal was to balance Allied’s financial viability with people’s needs as individuals – we didn’t want to lay everyone off, but it was tough.”

And, several months later?

“We’re hanging on. Business isn’t really coming back fully yet and the business that is coming back is being run in a way that you can tell – people aren’t really certain about how COVID will impact it.”

Help by strategic partnership
“You have to assume there’s going to be some type of pent-up demand, or a surge, but it is difficult to tell,” Wendel says. “We’re in a position that no one has been in, so it’s hard to predict what’s going to happen. When there’s a vaccine, it’ll come back to normal, and I think that’s what has to happen, but normal won’t be normal for a long time!”

When industry does open up some more, Allied Blower intends to follow the success formula it created through strategic partnerships, which have been an important part of operations. The company is partnered with other companies, such as Air Cure Incorporated, to complement its own products and services.

Air Cure is a baghouse filter technology company that supplies proprietary parts for baghouses. Then there are others, such as Albarrie, which manufactures non-woven filter fabrics and bags used in baghouse filters, and Fargus GreCon, which supplies spark detection and extinguishing systems used to prevent silo dust explosions and fires.

Strategic partnerships are very important to Allied, according to Wendel. “We wanted to make it better for us and for our clients, and some things you can’t do in-house,” he says. “We found quality, reliable partners, and we developed relationships with those partners.”

Steadying the revenue stream
These partnerships go a long way toward providing a steady and more substantial revenue stream, as well as ensuring the success of the other companies.

In deciding which ones to partner with, Allied looks at which companies it already works with in some capacity, whether in providing services or purchasing products. Wendel says that if Allied only deals with a company once a year, there’s no point.

“But if we use them more frequently, or a vendor’s goods are mission critical we recognize the opportunity and we’ll approach them,” he says. “There are actually one or two we’re looking at now, but we haven’t really made a decision. I don’t think we’ll get there soon – because right now everyone is hunkered down – but we have hope for the future.”

Allied also operates a number of service centres, which Wendel says are an important aspect of business.

“The idea is to be close to our customers and to support those service centres with a larger manufacturing centre,” he says. “The centres provide a high level of customer service and they can support larger projects with manpower and manufacturing resources.”

Building on training
A big part of looking to the future is the training and facilitation of the workforce. Allied outsources a lot of its training – whether for apprenticeships or management positions – to local educational facilities. To encourage personal growth, the company shoulders the cost of training when employees want to further their careers.

Wendel and the rest of the Allied Blower team are noticeably proud that a would-be tradesperson can join the staff as a 20-year-old apprentice and work up to a management position in his or her 30s or 40s, with company-provided help along the way.

“It’s important to us to make sure there are career paths for our people,” he says. “We want people to find a way to stay within the organization and fulfill their career goals. Some end up being a foreman, some might move into the office, but with different training programs.”

Wendel explains the different training paths and programs for different positions. This is a direct result of the company developing specific training programs for each specific skill, tool, software, or estimating technique. And employees who are ear-marked for management positions are sent to a university for leadership courses and project management training.

It’s all about attracting and keeping good people who will guide Allied Blower into the future.

Super safety
And of course, safety is paramount. Allied Blower trains all employees in the relevant safety protocols and environments, like working underground, at height, or working with chemicals. It keeps track of safety statistics and near misses. Wendel said it’s more than just dropping a book of safe practices in front of a worker and expecting him or her to read it.

“We all need to have the same mindset. No one is in too big a hurry, or no job is too skinny on margin, to be safe. It effects how we view owning this business, no one in management wants to send someone home with injuries.”

Situated in British Columbia, Allied is well able to attract workers in the field. Gone are the days when education meant university-only to young people just starting out. Thanks to a fair proportion of the economy in Western Canada relying on resource extraction, Western Canadian governments have developed the education systems for those who wish to become skilled tradespersons – it hasn’t been uncool to seek work in the trades for a number of years, and companies like Allied are able to reap the benefits.

Wendel said operations relating to pneumatic conveyance are probably busiest because so many industries make use pneumatic conveyance. As a result of that, dust control gets busy as well.

“Those two go together like toast and butter. What happens is a company’s process will generate dust or residual material, it is collected and pneumatically conveyed to a dust collector – and then have to convey it somewhere else,” Wendel says. “Filter bags support dust collection; each thing we do makes the next thing we do busier. It works well.”

To the future
But that’s when times are normal. And just as when times are normal, Allied has some long-term goals.

“I think we’ll double our size by replicating our Canadian footprint in the U.S.,” he says.

But moving forward with everyone healthy, physically and financially, is the ultimate goal given what’s happening right now, Wendel says in conclusion.

For more information, visit Allied Blower at its web page, Alliedblower.com.

The post Looking Boldly Beyond<p class="company">Allied Blower</p> appeared first on Resource In Focus.

Since the late 1990s, Flex Energy Solutions has been manufacturing gas turbine generators for the oil and gas, biogas, and combined heat and power (CHP) markets in virtually every part of the globe. The company offers power solutions that help reduce costs and improve energy resiliency while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

The company has turbines and heat exchangers on the job all over the world, including North and South America, Asia, Australia, Europe, and Canada. Its power generators can run on “virtually any fuel that comes out of the ground, and even synthetic fuel,” according to Chief Executive Officer Mark Schnepel, and Flex Energy Solutions staff are proud to be part of an industry that powers society.

Power for industrial or commercial operations is often required in extremely remote locations. The company offers a number of solutions for grid-connected and grid-isolated power as well as options for CHP and biogas applications.

Cogeneration, or CHP, is a process in which turbines generate electrical power while using the turbine exhaust for heat. In traditional grid electricity generation, the resulting heat is usually lost into the atmosphere. Flex Turbines®, however, use the resulting heat for heating, cooling, dehumidification, and other processes, which in turn maximizes efficiency.

Grid-isolated (off-grid) power means any location can be powered by the company’s turbines. Because Flex Turbines can run on virtually any fuel, Flex’s customers enjoy best-in-class fuel flexibility. The Flex Turbine is one of the cleanest technologies available and can even help reduce emissions from the site.

Flex Turbines can also operate parallel to the utility grid (grid-parallel) and excel in areas with unpredictable power. The turbine runs at base power while connected to the electrical grid until a utility interruption occurs. Upon interruption, the Flex Turbine will automatically disconnect from the grid and keep the customer’s site operational until the utility source is restored.

Biogas applications run on fuels that would otherwise be flared or vented. The Flex Turbine is the most fuel flexible technology on the market, able to run on natural gas, propane, biogas, associated gas, and tank vapors. It can even use landfill gasses and digester gasses. This type of fuel flexibility makes Flex Turbines one of the go-to power generators for many industries.

Flex Turbines provide more than just energy savings. “Our turbines only require one scheduled eight-hour maintenance per year, which is a big improvement over other, more traditional types of power sources, such as reciprocating or diesel engines,” said Schnepel. “Additionally, other technologies require much more extensive fuel conditioning and cleanup, so we’re one of the most practical and fuel flexible pieces of equipment available.”

Schnepel said the leasing of equipment has become a huge part of Flex Energy Solutions’ business model, and the company strives for excellence in that area as well. “Leasing goes hand in hand with service,” he said. “Our sales team and our Applications Engineering team work together with customers to ensure that they receive the correct equipment for their application. Then we monitor it 24/7 to ensure it’s operating as designed and expected.”

Schnepel is proud of the quality Flex Energy Solutions provides. “We just had a major cold snap on a site in Alberta where we have equipment operating, and there were no issues at all. Everything just kept working as it should,” he said. “Meanwhile, the same turbines can also operate in places like Texas, where there is not only extreme heat but excessive amounts of dust as well. You don’t get that level of service from reciprocating engines or diesel generators or any of the older technology, and we’re really pleased to offer that level of quality and reliability.”

Every project teaches the company something new that it can apply to improve future systems. Each unique environment teaches Flex Energy Solutions about how its products can best serve parts of the world that experience extreme weather, heat, cold, salt, or dust. Even sound can be an issue, as the company found in Pennsylvania.

Near an area designated as national forest, a Flex Energy Solutions customer needed a pipeline compressor that had to operate at a very low decibel level to meet the requirements of working in the vicinity of a national forest.

“We had to engineer a low-sound package that met that goal,” said Schnepel. “It was a big challenge at first, but we solved it, and now we have that in our options list. Every opportunity presents a learning experience, and it was rewarding to be able to solve that issue and make it available for other customers.”

He said evolving products over time has served Flex Energy Solutions well. Each generation of equipment gets better – more efficient, stronger, and with better performance for customers.

Flex is even developing power systems for the cannabis industry. It helped create a mobile hemp drying unit to be used by commercial hemp growers.

Last year Flex Energy Solutions received a significant repeat order for multiple turbine units in California. The purchase will give that customer the capability to generate a combined 4.3 megawatts of power. The turbines will provide a baseload to the smart grid systems at three of the customer’s facilities and will reduce operating costs with CHP solutions.

The future is looking bright for Flex Energy Solutions. Schnepel said more and more people are adopting this technology as a way of cutting greenhouse gas emissions for their businesses. Flex Turbines are now becoming part of bigger solutions, whether in the form of micro-grids fed by solar and/or wind power, or along with existing larger grids.

“As major storms and wildfires become more prevalent, people will be relying more and more on self-generating their own grids. The small gas turbine will play a critical role in that evolution from centralized power grids to less centralized power locations.”

Flex Turbines are modular and considered ‘plug and play.’ It is not unusual to see multiple turbines connected on some job sites, depending on the customer’s needs. A wastewater authority celebrated the grand opening of a recently upgraded resource recovery plant in Bellaire, Ohio. The facility is fully powered by a Flex Turbine that converts gasses from their digesters into electricity, making the plant energy neutral. Flex Energy Solutions also helped an Australian company create an innovative thermal energy storage solution for converting biogas into storable heat that can be used to generate high-quality, reliable electric power.

Twenty-year company veteran Schnepel said he is also excited about some new technology Flex will be introducing later this year that he said will set a new high watermark for the turbine industry. “I’m proud of our company on so many levels,” said Schnepel. “Every time we build something, whenever we send something out, it makes me smile.”

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