Frito-Lay is working to reduce carbon emissions from their manufacturing plants. As part of this effort, they invested in a biomass-fired boiler at the Topeka, Kansas, plant. Frito-Lay partnered with Burns & McDonnell Engineering, Inc. and CPL Systems, Inc., to design and construct a steam producing boiler using carbon neutral fuels such as wood wastes (e.g. tree bark), shipping pallets, and used rubber vehicle tires. The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) joined with Frito-Lay, Burns & McDonnell, and CPL to analyze the reductions in carbon dioxide (CO<
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) emissions that result from use of biomass-fired boilers in the food manufacturing environment. DOE support provided for the data collection and analysis, and reporting necessary to evaluate boiler efficiencies and reductions in CO<
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emissions. The Frito-Lay biomass-fired boiler has resulted in significant reductions in CO<
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emissions from the Topeka production facility. The use of natural gas has been reduced by 400 to 420 million standard cubic feet per year with corresponding reductions of 24,000 to 25,000 tons of CO<
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. The boiler does require auxiliary functions, however, that are unnecessary for a gas-fired boiler. These include heavy motors and fans for moving fuel and firing the boiler, trucks and equipment for delivering the fuel and moving at the boiler plant, and chippers for preparing the fuel prior to delivery. Each of these operations requires the combustion of fossil fuels or electricity and has associated CO<
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emissions. Even after accounting for each of these auxiliary processes, however, the biomass-fired boiler results in net emission reductions of 22,500 to 23,500 tons of CO<
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per year.