(Continued from Front Page) Outreach and Technical Assistance
The ETAC-PENNTAP-Penn State McKeesport Partnership provides outreach and technical assistance to companies in Western Pennsylvania in the area of pollution prevention and sustainable energy efficient opportunities and practices.
• The Partnership provides assistance to industry to go beyond regulatory compliance and move toward environmentally sustainable practices. It promotes the availability of funds for P2/E2 assessments, grants and low interest loan funds to help businesses fund P2/E2 implementation.
• The Partnership performs cases of applied technical assistance related to new technology, process improvements, pollution prevention, energy management and efficiency, environmental compliance, health and safety, technology transfer, and new product development.
• The Partnership fosters relationships with other appropriate business assistance service providers, trade associations, economic development organizations, Small Business Development Centers (SBDC), the Penn State Cooperative Extension System, and government agencies.
• The Partnership conducts follow-up activities to determine environmental and economic benefits resulting from implementation of P2/E2 options.
The Partners
ETAC is a not-for-profit applied research and development technical assistance center located on the campus of Northampton Community College. ETAC specializes in applying infrared, ultraviolet, microwave, radio frequency, electron beam and other types of energy to improve heating, drying, coating and curing processes used in manufacturing facilities, as well as energy management education programs and other types of training. An important component of these technologies are their ability to improve product quality, increase productivity, improve energy efficiency, reduce costs, and reduce the environmental impact of many industrial processes.
PENNTAP helps Pennsylvania businesses improve their competitiveness by providing
 free technical assistance and information to help resolve specific technical questions or needs. The Partnership is staffed in western Pennsylvania by Roger L. Price, P.E., and is hosted at the Penn State McKeesport Campus.
This unique partnership representing the collaboration of a large state university economic development outreach program, a local campus of that university, a community college, and a government environmental protection agency is an outstanding example of an innovative economic development program with successful practices in promoting growth that is focused on environmentally sustainable business practices and energy conservation.
In the past, many economic development stakeholders have viewed economic development and environmental protection as competing priorities. This Partnership illustrates how technical assistance focused on waste reduction, sustainability, and energy management and conservation can be entirely compatible with economic development. The Partnership is committed to continuously encouraging our clients to be environmentally responsible corporate citizens, and is proactive in its efforts to help its clients improve production processes to reduce waste. Recognizing the success of effective pollution prevention programs requires that prevention thinking and action become integrated in company standard operating procedures, we continuously encourage executive level management to involve employees in project development and implementation. The most effective and successful P 2 programs originate at the plant level and involve a substantial amount of employee participation. This “employee ownership” approach results in achievement of sustainable pollution prevention practices, energy management and energy efficiency, which positively impacts the bottom-line.
Assistance to Innovative Entrepreneurs
In addition to providing technical and economic development assistance, the Partnership provides assistance to entrepreneurs and developers of innovative technologies, many of which include important pollution prevention and energy efficient techniques. A few examples of the Partnership's initiatives include:
- An ETAC project involving a company that custom bends and fabricates vinyl architectural shapes to assess advanced energy saving process heating technologies that can be applied in the company's manufacturing process.
- Research and initiation of contacts for a new technology developer to help the company further develop its innovative design of a cyclone separator for air pollutant particulate removal.
- For a metal fabricating company and partners licensed to introduce a Danish Biogas technology to the United States, worked to introduce the company to other biogas contacts and resources.
- Provided information to a steel mill service contract to help the company research, develop and demonstrate a new process to re-use steel industry waste.
Summary of Benefits
The following table provides a summary of the environmental and economic benefits for Pollution Prevention Energy Efficiency (P2E2) site assessments performed by the PENNTAP-ETAC-PENN STATE McKeesport Partnership for which implementation has been verified. In addition, 436 jobs have been saved or created.
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