Sofame is based in Montreal and has sold several systems in France, but it quietly entered the U.S. industrial energy efficiency market space in 2007. By signing up manufacturers' representatives on the east coast, Sofame extended its net sales without incurring major costs. It took two years to generate the first results, but today two multinational food processors, based in Battle Creek, MI, and Hershey, PA, are using Sofame Percotherm® systems to reduce fuel costs and CO2 emissions by over 10%. Two hospitals in New Jersey and Maine have purchased Sofame's equipment. Two universities, one in Colorado and one in Princeton, NJ, have also used Sofame engineering and equipment to cut fuel costs and CO2 emission by about 10%.  Sofame's newest customer is Butterball, the largest supplier of turkey products in the United States.
 

These environmental investments help mitigate climate change, but they also offer a handsome dividend in the form of fuel cost reduction, so financial payback periods are typically less than three years. In the case of large gas consumers (over $1,000,000 per year at current prices), payback can be closer to one year. Sofame's newest customer is Butterball, the largest supplier of turkey products in the United States.

Power Generation Applications

LNG Terminal using a GE Turbine, Montoire de Bretagne, France

An exciting new opportunity for Sofame is the way that direct contact technology has been applied to electric power generation. The U.S. electricity market is the world's largest, comprising one-fifth of both global demand and power plant capacity.

With natural gas prices at historic lows compared to all other fuels, many utilities are converting to gas-fired turbines which are about 40% efficient. In a well-run power plant generating electricity, steam and cooling for air conditioning, co-generation brings efficiency up to 70%. Sofame can take that number up to 99% if there is a need and a use for hot water at 135ºF. The potential additional fuel savings of 29% represent a corresponding reduction in CO2 emissions.

Today, institutions, universities, hospitals and industrial plants are also opting to generate their own electricity due to the availability of clean-firing gas turbines. This trend led Siemens and Alstom to build gas turbine plants in the United States to meet the demand. Since the demand for electricity is ever on the rise, Sofame's direct contact heat recovery technology can cost-effectively help reduce the impact on the atmosphere.