Keystone Profiles, Ltd. of Beaver Falls is a manufacturer/supplier of precision cold drawn products that reduced its annual operating costs by over $41,000 by becoming more energy efficient and reducing waste with the help of a Small Business Pollution Prevention Assistance Account loan.

Keystone used the state funding to install a new process tank and insulate their existing process tanks and steam pipes. The company projects annual savings of 1,090 MCF (thousand cubic feet) of natural gas. A new temperature control valve will help reduce the amount of steam required to heat the process tanks. Labor and maintenance costs will also be reduced.

The company also projects saving $5,000 for the purchase of potassium permanganate, sulfuric acid, hydrochloric acid and degreasing agents, and a savings of $10,000 in hazardous waste disposal costs for these materials.

Combined, these projects are projected to save the company approximately $41,600 annually. The company has projected that the payback will be 3.4 years.

The loan program is available to any small business owner whose pollution prevention/energy efficiency project. The business must have 100 or fewer full-time employees.

The loan must be used to purchase or upgrade equipment, or to implement a process change, that reduces or reuses raw materials on-site, reduces the production of waste at the source or significantly reduces energy consumption. Equipment and processes that focus on recycling or pollution control (scrubbers, filters, dust collectors, etc.) are ineligible for the loan.

The project must have a payback period less than or equal to the term of the loan and the expected benefits must extend beyond the term of the loan. The maximum loan amount is $100,000 with a 2 percent interest rate and a maximum term of 10 years.

Since its inception in 1999, DEP has received 109 loan applications totaling more than $5.0 million.

For more information, visit the Small Business Pollution Prevention Assistance Account webpage or contact Gene DelVecchio at 717-772-8951 or send e-mail to gdelvecchi@state.pa.us.

11/4/2005