Daily Innovation

People depend on us to do extraordinary things in unique places all over the world. Take this 120,000-square-foot sports center located in Shanghai. Previously, the sports center used electricity to heat their swimming pool water which was very expensive. They decided to purchase a generator to produce their own electricity. 

Cummins was asked to bid on the project. Our engineers questioned the amount of electricity consumed was out of line with the size of the building. Learning that the center and the pool water were heated by electricity, they applied Cummins’ new combined heat and power (CHP) technology which co-generates both electricity and heat from the same generator instead of wasting the heat energy.

How it works

This Cummins CHP system is powered by a Cummins Power Generation QSK19G lean-burn natural gas engine generator that produces 315 kW of electricity. A heat-recovery boiler captures 1.5 million BTU’s of heat energy (per hour) from the engine’s exhaust and cooling water circuits. With this setup, the Cummins system is able to meet about half the electrical demand from the center and nearly all the heat demand.

Visitors exercise in comfort thanks to our CHP cogeneration system from Cummins Power Generation. The system has had a significant impact on energy efficiency and cost savings for the Jinqiao Sports Center. The CHP system is so efficient that the center’s energy cost savings will pay for the system in less than three years.

At Cummins, doing something exceptional and thinking beyond your desk is more than part of the job. It is the job.

How the image was created

Cummins was given a price quote of $18K to produce the image of an engine floating in a pool. The design team at Cummins had a brain session and came up with a plan. The next day, the Cummins photographer and 2 interns purchased a few pool ‘floaties’ and went to a local pool. After 2 hours of photography, sunshine and splashing in the pool, the image was half done – and the interns were starving. So they ate a big lunch of sushi and returned to the office. The designers used existing engine photography and Adobe Photoshop to complete the image.

“This image generates the most discussion and it has been in quite a few national ads  as well as our website,” said Richard Whitney, Global Brand Manager. “The total cost was under $1,000 to produce the image as seen today and the saved budget went toward the next image – kids pulling a wagon with a giant engine in it.”

Daily Innovation  |  Our Communities  |  Our Environment  |  Building Success