3M, Saint Paul

Goal: Evaluate fume hoods for energy efficiency and recommend changes/upgrades to increase efficiency.

ConAgra Foods, Hastings

Goal: Evaluate and recommend solutions for energy efficiency in process equipment.

Consolidated Precision Products, Bloomington

Goal: Evaluate energy efficiency on exhaust fans, lighting, and electric and natural gas melters and heat treat ovens.

General Mills, Golden Valley

Goal: Determine feasibility and specification criteria for solvent recovery and reuse.

Malt-O-Meal, Northfield

Goal: Address compressed air, steam, cooling water, and other areas for energy efficiency.

ME Elecmetal, Duluth

Goal: Evaluate heat loss and energy efficiency of heat treat ovens, ladles and other natural gas uses, investigate air vacuum and compressor systems.

Melrose Dairy Proteins, Melrose

Goal: Address product recovery opportunities as well as water reuse potential.

Valley Craft, Lake City

Goal: Investigate phosphate-free, low-temperature conversion coatings for paint line.

Johnson Screens, New Brighton

Goal: Evaluate options to improve water recycling and the compressed air system.

Lou-Rich, Albert Lea

Goal: Examine ways to eliminate zinc from the wastewater stream.

Oak Hills Living Center, New Ulm

Goal: Identify ways to reduce pharmaceutical waste through the use of an automated distribution system.

Roberts Automatic, Chanhassen

Goal: Reduce electrical and gas consumption in production areas and oil mist generation in work spaces.

Siemens Water Technologies, Roseville

Goal: Investigate industrial wastewater reuse.

UMMC-Fairview, Minneapolis

Goal: Work with the green team and evaluate the potential of implementing reusable gowns.

Atritech Inc., Plymouth

Goal: Develop new packaging concept to reduce medical device packaging waste.

Granite Falls Energy, LLC, Granite Falls

Goal: Conduct energy efficiency analysis of various parts of the ethanol plant.

Hitchcock Industries, Bloomington

Project 1 Goal: Determine feasibility of using a fluidized bed system.

Hitchcock Industries, Bloomington

Project 2 Goal: Investigate the opportunity to replace sulfur hexafluoride.

Metropolitan Council Environmental Services, Saint Paul

Goal: Determine the efficiency of the current blower operation and how that operation could be improved with different controls or strategies.

Intern Summary | Presentation

Minnesota Energy, Buffalo Lake

Goal: Evaluate water saving opportunities for ethanol production.

Twin City Die Casting, Minneapolis

Goal: Reduce electrical and thermal energy use in facility.

St. Luke’s Hospital, Duluth

Goal: Minimize hazardous materials by incorporating environmentally preferable purchasing protocols and reduce blue wrap use.

Advanced Web, Minneapolis

Goal: Reduce scrap rate and the volume of waste paper produced.

Arctic Cat, Thief River Falls

Goal: Reduce energy use from the paint line, reduce phosphorus discharges in the wastewater, and improve compressed air efficiency.

Boise Cascade, International Falls

Goal: Improve energy efficiency and conserve water by improving the compressed air system efficiency, improving steam system insulation, and reducing water use.

Cook Area Health Services, Bigfork

Goal: Reduce pharmaceutical waste at its hospitals, medical clinics and nursing home.

The Dotson Company, Mankato

Goal: Reduce energy use by reusing process heat from casting iron.

Greatbatch – Globe Tool, Minneapolis

Goal: Reduce trichloroethylene (TCE) emissions from vapor degreasers.

Kraft Foods Global, New Ulm

Goal: Reduce water use by reclaiming water for reuse and reduce energy use by installing a condensing boiler-stack economizer and installing a heat recovery system on the ammonia gas compressor system to capture waste heat.

Source Article

McLean Thermal – Hoffman Enclosures, Inc., Champlin

Goal: Improve operating efficiencies in the pre-paint/ washer/conversion coating process lines by reducing cleaning chemical use, energy consumption of heated stages, and wastewater discharge.

Olmsted Medical Center, Rochester

Goal: Reduce hazards associated with chemicals and reduce number of chemicals used for cleaning and disinfecting.

Alexandria Finishing, Alexandria

Goal: Reduce wastewater and wastewater treatment chemicals in the facility.

Federal Cartridge, Anoka

Goal: Reduce wastewater.

Hennepin County Medical Center, Minneapolis

Goal: Reduce pharmaceutical waste.

Metropolitan Council Environmental Services, Saint Paul

Goal: Improve the energy efficiency of its secondary treatment aeration system.

QX, Inc., Hamel

Goal: Reduce energy use in the melt furnace operation and recover heat from the evaporator system.

Tennant Company, Golden Valley

Goal: Reduce water and chemical use in painting pretreatment and improve energy efficiency.

Tri-County Hospital, Wadena

Goal: Reduce pharmaceutical waste.

Allina Hospitals and Clinics, Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis

Goal: Minimize toxic product use in maintenance and environmental services.

Nordic Ware, Saint Louis Park

Goal: Reduce energy used for makeup air units in the painting areas and improve heating efficiency during non-manufacturing hours.

Stone Products of St. Cloud, Inc., Saint Cloud

Goal: Automate the gel-coat spray operation to reduce waste, toxic air emissions, and worker exposure, while improving quality.

Stylmark, Inc., Fridley

Goal: Reduce an anodizing line’s nitric acid use and nitrate discharge.

Thomas Engineering Company, Brooklyn Park

Goal: Replace trichloroethylene (TCE) degreasing with a combination of n-Propyl Bromide and aqueous degreasing.

U.S. Distilled Products, Princeton

Goal: Reduce packaging and product losses, and wastewater generation from the production lines.

Aveda Corporation, Blaine

Goal: Evaluate ways to reduce water use and evaluate efficiency of the reverse osmosis system.

Blandin Paper, Grand Rapids

Goal: Increase the efficiency of the clay preparation area by recovering material for reuse and removing material from the wastewater.

Endocardial Solutions, Saint Paul

Goal: Reduce costs associated with the use of non-value added materials in the manufacture of medical devices.

Hutchinson Technology, Hutchinson

Goal: Test ways to reduce water use and improve rinse water cleanliness.

Pro-Corn LLC, Preston

Goal: Evaluate energy conservation opportunities for motors and uninsulated piping at an ethanol production facility.

Redwood Area Hospital, Redwood Falls

Goal: Research how to reduce volume of solid waste and waste that results in the emission of persistent bioaccumulative toxins (PBTs).

Rock-Tenn Company, Saint Paul

Goal: Improve facility insulation to reduce energy costs.

Ultra Image Powder Coating, Big Lake

Goal: Evaluate how to reduce raw material use in the powder coating application process.

Crenlo LLC, Rochester

Goal: Reduce paint arrestor waste and evaluate opportunities to conserve water and chemicals.

Greif, Rosemount

Goal: Reduce scrap by reviewing scrap-generating processes in the tubing department, including density of plain paper rolls, setup procedures and cutting operations.

Intermet, Minneapolis

Goal: Examine water use and wastewater, focusing on water use at the tumblers and evaluate electricity use, mainly on the compressors, motors and natural gas to the evaporator.

Lou-Rich, Albert Lea

Goal: Reduce water used in cleaning and cooling operations by 8.9 million gallons per year, saving $42,100 annually.

Malt-O-Meal, Northfield

Goal: Evaluate options to decrease the volume of off-specification product produces.

Tiro Industries, Fridley

Goal: Reduce water and wastewater to reduce a Service Availability Charge (SAC).

Associated Finishing, Mankato

Goal: Work with molten salt paint stripping materials and methods to reduce phosphorus in wastewater.

Cortec Corporation, Saint Paul

Goal: Improve efficiency of raw material use.

Fairview Health Services, Bloomington

Goal: Reduce infectious waste.

HealthEast, Saint Paul

Goal: Recommend equipment modifications and reusable sharp containers.

K-Bar Industries, Faribault

Goal: Improve inspection of reject parts before stripping, increase operator awareness, and suggest process changes.

Lifecore Biomedical, Chaska

Goal: Remove unnecessary equipment and repair water valves to reduce water use.

Technical Plating, Brooklyn Park

Goal: Improve flow control on one plating line and recommend effluent reuse.

Amidon Graphics, Saint Paul

Goal: Reduce paper waste from web printing processes.

Columbia Gear, Avon

Goal: Reduce filtration waste.

Fiberglas Fabricators, Le Center

Goal: Evaluate trim scrap and overspray.

Hibbing Taconite, Hibbing

Goal: Reduce ore spills by making equipment and maintenance changes.

Oakwood Homes, Redwood Falls

Goal: Reduce construction scrap waste.

Pillsbury Foods, Chanhassen

Goal: Reduce water use at food processing facility.

Quest International, Rochester

Goal: Reduce wastewater loading.

Wis-Pak of Mankato, Mankato

Goal: Reduce water use and wastewater loading.