Pratt & Whitney Power Systems Receives Order for PURECYCLE® System from Gympie Timber Company in Australia

EAST HARTFORD, Conn., Jan. 19, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Pratt & Whitney Power Systems (PWPS) has its first order in the Australian renewable energy market with the sale of a modular PURECYCLE® Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) unit. The ORC unit will generate up to 240 kW of net power to help heat timber-drying kilns for Gympie Timber Company near Brisbane, Australia. Pratt & Whitney is a United Technologies Corp. (NYSE:UTX) company.

The project is in the city of Gympie, near Brisbane, Australia, and is expected to be operational by the third quarter of 2011. In this installation, Gympie Timber Company will connect the PureCycle to an existing thermal-oil system used to heat timber-drying kilns. Excess sawmill residue will be used to create the additional heat required for the unit. As a result of the installation, the site will become a net exporter of electricity and significantly reduce its maximum demand on the electricity network. The PureCycle system will use the 150 degree Celsius input heat resource to generate about 240 kW of net power.

"The addition of the PureCycle system to their operations will enable Gympie Timber to take what once was a waste product and extract useable energy from it," said Chuck Levey, vice president of sales and marketing for Pratt & Whitney Power Systems. "We are happy to see this type of cost savings and positive environmental impact being embraced Australia by using the ORC system."

The unit will be installed, owned and operated by Gympie Timber Company. The PureCycle power systems will allow Gympie to produce electrical power from a biomass application using the ORC technology for the first time in Australia.

Pratt & Whitney Power Systems offers a spectrum of ORC products ranging in nominal output power from about 280 kW to about 10 MW of renewable power. The PureCycle system is a closed-cycle process that uses relatively low to moderate-temperature hot water resources. Turboden's products use a similar process to provide up to 10 MW of energy. These systems are driven by a simple evaporation process and are entirely enclosed, which means they produce virtually no emissions.

Pratt & Whitney Power Systems is also an industry leader in providing solutions to the power generation market through its industrial gas turbines and aftermarket services. Its gas turbines serve as mobile, easily-assembled and highly-efficient power generation systems. These systems can deliver as much as 60 MW of safe electric power. PWPS has installed more than 2,000 industrial gas turbines in more than 50 countries worldwide.

Pratt & Whitney is a world leader in the design, manufacture and service of aircraft engines, space propulsion systems and industrial gas turbines. United Technologies, based in Hartford, Conn., is a diversified company providing high technology products and services to the global aerospace and commercial building industries.

SOURCE Pratt & Whitney