A few minutes later Brock, Astec president, was on stage at the Convention Center, accepting the award from Tom Edd Wilson, president and CEO of the Chattanooga Area Chamber and host for the Spirit of Innovation Luncheon.
The event, featuring a keynote address by David Abney of UPS, attracted over 700 people to the Convention Center. Astec received the award for its Double Barrel Green System that produces a warm mix for producing asphalt. The method reduces fuel use in making the mix and virtually eliminates the smoke and smell associated with the production and placement of asphalt on the road.
“The Double Barrel Green system idea really started in Europe several years ago when European contractors started using expensive technologies to run hot mix asphalt at lower temperatures,” Brock said. “As the European methods spread to the U.S., our customers started to pay attention to the benefits of the warm mix, but they were not enamored with the costs associated with it.
“Understanding that our customers wanted an economical way to run hot mix asphalt at lower temperatures, we decided to put the effort into finding a better way to produce warm mix with a cost savings.
It took some time, but we ended up finding out that plain water worked just fine. After partnering with a nozzle manufacturer in Arizona, we were able to come up with the Double Barrel Green system.”
Astec tested the first Double Barrel Green System at Southeastern Materials’ asphalt plant near the Chattanooga airport in 2007. The results of this test using warm mix were outstanding, Brock said. The second run was done on North Terrace Road, the access road along I-24.
“What we confirmed in that project was that warm mix also allows for the running of higher percentages of recycled asphalt product (RAP),” Brock said. “The North Terrace job has 50% RAP in the warm mix and that is getting global attention.
Not long ago I took engineers from the Army Corps of Engineers to North Terrace for a visual inspection of the asphalt. Everyone on that tour agreed that after three years the warm mix is still performing very well.”
Astec customers like the fuel savings they couldn’t achieve with the European warm mix, and the product has taken off. “We have over 300 systems running now and are building one every other day,” Brock said. “It is a win for our industry, not just for us. On a recent trip to Europe, I asked several contractors if they were running warm mix. They said, Not really; it’s too expensive. To date we have already delivered a handful of units to Europe, and we believe that after testing our system we will convince European companies to increase their use of our warm mix.”
A Good Fit for the HVAC Industry
A couple of years ago Ron Patch spent most of a seven-hour drive from Destin to Chattanooga thinking about how his business could stay on top of the HVAC industry.
Somewhere between Montgomery and Birmingham, a light bulb-worthy idea shot across his mind. Now the idea that occurred to the president of Electronic Controls has earned his company the 2010 Early Innovator Award, presented by the Chattanooga Technology Council.
Patch’s product, a patent-pending HVAC retrofit called Enerfit, reduces energy use by commercial air-conditioning units in large buildings like schools, churches and big box stores by 40-70 percent, he says.
Sensors and an automated Webbased control with 3D visualization enable the retrofit to identify its building’s needs. Consequently, the unit can better regulate indoor air quality, reduce relative humidity and extend its own life.
“The basic variable airflow concept of the Enerfit retrofit has been around the HVAC industry for several years,” Patch said. “But the concept has never been applied to single-zone air conditioners because of concern that it could damage the units. The Enerfit retrofit allows the airflow to be safely varied while actually adding substantial additional protection to the unit.”
The potential consumer benefits, as well as the green payoff, suggest a promising future for Enerfit.
“Based on published industry data, we estimate that there are three to four million single-zone air conditioning units in the U.S. that would be good candidates for the Enerfit retrofit,” Patch said. “That would result in a lot of saved energy and improved comfort. We’re looking forward to seeing where this goes.”