Earlier this month, we brought you the story of Chrome Deposit Corporation, a manufacturer that with the help of the University of Delaware Industrial Assessment Center is saving millions of dollars with just a few energy efficiency upgrades. This week, we’re taking a trip south to the Tennessee 3-Star Industrial Assessment Center (TN 3-Star IAC, for short), another of the 24 IACs located at universities across the country.

Students at the TN 3-Star IAC work under the direction of faculty from Tennessee Technological University, East Tennessee State University and University of Memphis. Like IAC teams from across the U.S., they conduct energy efficiency audits of mid-size manufacturers in their area that analyze a plant’s energy, waste and productivity issues.

Like their counterparts in Delaware, this three-school IAC has made quite a difference in the energy savings and efficiency improvements of manufacturers in their area, which ranges across Tennessee and portions of Kentucky, Virginia, West Virginia, North Carolina and Arkansas. In fact, this IAC has made over 50 assessments and over 500 total recommendations, which if implemented, would save the average manufacturer evaluated an average $118,636 in electrical, natural gas, waste and productivity costs.

In the case of the FUJIFILM Hunt Chemicals U.S.A facility in Dayton, TN, the TN 3-Star IAC team has saved the company nearly 1,240,976 kW hours of electricity following the initiation of a comprehensive, compressed air system reduction strategy. In May 2010, the company received an Energy Champions Award from the Energy Department’s Industrial Technologies Program after realizing more than 250,000 million BTUs in energy savings – or more than 15 percent total energy savings.

Thanks to the TN 3-Star IAC’s assessment of the plant’s energy use and subsequent energy efficiency recommendations, the FUJIFILM plant is winning more than an award (albeit a celebrated one.) The factory’s savings are an estimated $39,280 per year following the implementation of the IAC’s suggestions, which included a three-phase strategy to reduce the factory’s need for compressed air, which is a necessary component for the delivery of material through pipelines throughout the plant. The TN facility produces fine and specialty chemicals like high-performance antioxidants and ultra-violet stabilizers for plastics, battery sealers and etching acid blends.

The Dayton plant has taken their savings story to the rest of the 35,274 employees at FUJIFILM's facilities located across the globe. Namely, results of the facility’s efficiency efforts were presented to the company’s North American Energy Managers and highlighted in the company’s global publication “FUJIWorld.”

Energy efficiency success stories like these are happening at Industrial Assessment Centers all over the country. Whether you’re a student interested in getting involved with an IAC on your campus or a business trying to improve efficiency, visit the website to learn more.