ACI has the capability to design and construct a system to produce both heat and electricity. This system is known as cogeneration. The concept uses a primary energy source such as natural gas to create heat and electricity simultaneously. The term combined heat and power is used to describe this process.

Cogeneration operates on the recovery and use of heat waste produced during the generation of electricity. In a majority of electric power plants, the heat waste is lost. This results in significantly lower operating efficiencies than with cogeneration.
Natural gas cogeneration technologies offer customers the ability to use small units of gas, which includes all of the components for a cogeneration system. Facility managers can also use high efficiency industrial turbines or steam turbine systems with natural gas. These systems can range from 2.2 kilowatts to several hundred megawatts.

Natural gas insures that cogeneration is a clean burning process. This is because natural gas produces much less sulfur dioxide particles and nitrogen oxides than a coal or oil-based system does.

A Sample Cogeneration Project:
ACI is coordinating the cogeneration project at the U.S. General Services Administration Central Heating and Refrigeration Plant in Washington D.C. The $60 million project will reduce operating expenses and emissions, while increasing the plant's ability to meet the chilled water needs of eight Smithsonian Institution museums located along the National Mall. The project will substantially reduce the plant's electric costs while generating surplus electricity for sale to an electric power distribution grid. By using natural gas in this process, regional air quality can also improve, because of reduced emissions. In addition, the new chillers will replace the ozone-depleting refrigerant that is currently in use at the GSA and Smithsonian facilities.

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