Self-contained systems can be used for digesters, landfills and coal mines.
Martin Machinery, Latham, Mo., has been designing and building electric power generator systems since the 1980s. The generators burn the waste gases to make electricity. The company’s first customers owned farm digesters. Today, in addition to farmers, landfills and coal mines use the generators to produce power from the methane gas they generate. As the company moved into manufacturing generators for industries such as these, it realized that its customers were interested in a stream-lined design.
Martin Machinery’s Harlan Martin explains that the early generators units were shipped as skid mounted units with radiators and switch gears shipped separately. Radiators were mounted outside the building, and the switch gear used to lock the generator unit to the electrical utility was often in a separate temperature-controlled room.
“These units are designed parallel to the electric utility,” he says. “This allows for the benefit of the stability of the utility and allows selling power back to the utility.”
More recently Martin says, end users prefer units installed in “walk-in” type enclosures. “This has become rather popular with customers, because of it being more like a ‘plug in play’ system, and thereby reducing the labor at the job site.” He adds that the units allow for more rapid depreciation than a “site build” building and offers better resale value due to it being a self-contained system.
Martin Machinery’s electric power generator systems vary in sizes from 40 kilowatts (KW) to 1300 KW. For more information, call 800-436-9190800-436-9190 or email [email protected].