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inor inefficiencies typically plague the com- measures the project has been a smashing success, which is phemissioning of untried or unique industrial nomenal considering the inflexible schedule project leaders designs, which is precisely why project man- faced. They were given less than two years to have this plant ager Larry Stevens remained on-site as the running full steam ahead by April 2007, when Andersen’s longprocess unfolded at Andersen Corp.’s new time steam supply would no longer be available. Amidst all of biomass-powered steam plant in Bayport, this, Stevens says he dealt with the stress just fine. “I went from Minn. Stevens works for Pioneer looking like I was 25 [years old] to Power Inc., general contractor on looking 45, but I dealt with it just this project that called for the fine,” he laughs. The pressure was design and construction of an enerintense as the window maker set out The design-build package consisted gy-efficient, clean, self-sufficient to determine the best solution to of a $22 million steam generation steam generation plant fueled by address a projected steam deficiency. facility to be entirely owned by waste streams from Andersen’s Identifying the Right Financial, window and door manufacturing Andersen featuring all new, state-ofprocess. Stevens says minor snags Environmental Solution the-art equipment accompanied by a are always expected when a new Luckily for Andersen, some unique and energy-saving addendum system goes live and the quest for employees were already investigatwithin the design. practical optimization begins. ing options for steam before the When EPM talked to Stevens in company’s steam supply contract mid-August he was coordinating was up—well before the news hit the warm-water discharge from turthat its current contract with NRG bines at a nearby power plant—part of an energy-savings fea- would not be up for renewal. Kirk Hogberg, manager of enerture considered to be the most distinct aspect of the new plant’s gy and environmental management for Andersen, says he and design. his team eventually learned NRG’s steam plant would no longer The window maker’s plant came on line this spring, produc- be running after April 2007 due to emissions reductions targeting all the steam needed to manufacture 6 million wooden doors ed at the Alan S. King power plant, on which NRG’s facility was and windows a year. “The Bayport plant is Andersen’s mother located. “One way for them to reduce their environmental ship,” says Dan Kinrichs, Andersen facilities engineer. impact was to stop making and selling steam,” Hogberg says. Andersen’s other plants across North America are mostly “The mood here when we found out was that it was a good assembly facilities that don’t require thing we started having discussions steam like the Bayport plant. Since when we did.” the 1980s, Andersen’s Bayport facilMany different proposals for ity purchased a portion of its steam steam replacement were considered, Because the wood from Andersen’s from a thermal facility owned by requiring an interdisciplinary waste stream is made into such a NRG Energy Inc., which was on approach. “The decision involved fine, clean flour that contains no paint the site of a neighboring power personnel from a wide range within or contaminants, the resulting ash plant. By 2005, 60 percent of our company,” Kinrichs says. Andersen’s steam was being piped “Some of the key criteria we looked content from burning it is extremely in from its neighbor, with the at ranged from return on investlow—two-tenths of one percent of remainder generated in-house by ment, environmental impact and what goes in comes out as ash. Andersen’s increasingly antiquated redundancy on the system. We wood-fed boiler system. Susan received seven or eight proposals, Roeder, Andersen’s manager of each with different options.” community relations and public Andersen finally selected a package affairs, says the business simply outgrew its capacity to generate and TKDA, a St. Paul-based engineering firm, was awarded the enough of its own steam, which led to an increasing depend- contract in July 2005 for an April 2007 completion date. “We ence on its supplier. approached them with an Andersen-owned concept—a unique Fueled by sawdust, shavings and wood fines (all byproducts project that met their steam needs and provided a good return of wood processing) from its own manufacturing process, on investment,” says Charles Lederer, TKDA project manager Andersen’s new facility is self-sufficient and modern. By all and senior engineering specialist. Pioneer Power was selected to
28 BIOMASS MAGAZINE 10|2007