Lockheed Martin System Integration is a defence contractor for the United States military. They have an employee complex of approximately 3500 employees. Their existing powerhouse which used to operate on natural gas and bunker, supplies steam for cooling, heating and electrical power generation. A few years ago, management at LMSI, decided to look at minimising their ‘’Carbon Footprint’’. After a detailed analysis, they found that the most cost effective way of doing this was by replacing their natural gas fired boilers with a carbon neutral technology. With a prominent forest industry in the area, the logical choice was to go to a wood fired boiler energy system.
After months of research and evaluation from the LMSI engineering team in Owego came to the conclusion that 2 x 600 hp 300 psi Wellons FEI wood fired boilers was the solution that would best fulfill their needs. The two 600 hp units were put into service in September 2008. Pivotal points in the Lockheed Martin selection process were the fact that Wellons FEI offered a system requiring minimum supervision, capable of burning a multitude of wood residues, with fully automatic ash extraction capabilities. Also Wellons FEI was able to custom design solutions and equipment that would not necessitate any heavy machinery to handle the wood deliveries and ash handling.