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= Cogeneration at Humboldt State  =
= Cogeneration at Humboldt State  =

Revision as of 22:50, 11 December 2009

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The History of CoGeneration

Energy cogeneration has had a long and interesting history that lead up to the technology we use today. The technology was developed in the early twentieth century, when people realized that a steam (primary power source then)could simultaneously produce electricity[1]. From 1940 on, the technology was spread throughout some of our cities but never fully implemented to the point it should have. Since then, engineers have expanded with different combination of energy services produced, while experimenting with different types of fuels required(see Table 1), to power these systems. This technology is often referred to, as Combined Heat and Power, or CHP. It is strongly advocated by the EPA[2], because of its increased operational efficiency, lower energy costs, and reduced demand on our natural resources. The CHPP[3], or Combined Heat and Power Partnership, is an organization that encourages the use of CHP Technologies and is very supportive of the transition from conventional systems over to CHP4, and their website is very helpful and informative for anybody interested in this technology.

Figure 1. This Cogeneration unit shows how a boiler can be used to make hot water and power a generator, which in turn creates electricity and heating.



Table 1

Cogeneration produces

Fuels to be used

Heating + Electricity  Diesel Fuel
Heating + Hot Water(HSU) Waste Vegetable Oil Veggawatt* [4]
Hot Water + Electricity Steam

 Coal
hot water + ambient heat ( H.S.U.) Natural Gas

 






 


 


Cogeneration at Humboldt State

The cogeneration building is located in the front parking lot of the Jolly Giant Commons(JGC)(Figure 2). This building often has a few service vehicles outside and is closer to the forest wall on the left of the parking lot when looking at it from the road. After talking with a few HSU staff, we tracked down the Maintenance Supervisor (housing and dining services) here at HSU, Tim Freeman, who kindly gave us a tour of the cogeneration system present here,on campus. Tim also provided us with useful information on how Cogeneration works.

Figure 2. Where the cogeneration plant is on the Humboldt Campus


 The cogeneration Unit runs 24/7, and has been since its installation in 1987  Unlike the majority of other cogeneration facilities serving different functions, the system here at Humboldt produces hot water and ambient heating instead of heating and energy production. This system supports a majority of residence halls, here on campus, with on demand hot water and ambient room heating, for students. The cogeneration unit is constantly producing around 350KW (350,000 Watts), and all of the hot water, heat and energy produced on campus is used on campus. Under every residence hall that this system covers, is a boiler and a heating unit, except Canyon, which only has air heating units. These boilers were set in place when the halls were made but since the cogeneration unit's construction, they are not being used.

       ○ These older boilers under the halls are only used when the system for some reason doesn't work (which is near never).

The Distribution Loop at Humboldt

Figure 3. This image portrays a similar system to that of HSU's, where returning water,is put back through the "loop", until it is used.[5]

The process starts with the engine heating up a series of stainless steel "heating" plates, which are exposed to a water distribution loop. The high temperature water then circulates uphill, to the Redwood and Sunset residence halls.(Because the water comes out of the engine so hot there is a cooling mechanism that remixes the hot and cold water, to accommodate appropriate temperatures for showers and kitchen utility. From there, the loop continues down the hill through the Jolly Giant Commons, building. There, it provides hot water for the dish washer (180oF.) and all other domestic systems running through the building. The line then splits in two, one going to the east(starts at Pepperwood) and west(starts at Cedar) sides of the Canyon dormitories. But because the flow of these building was thought out poorly, there is no way to release any excess heat that ends up at the end of the line here, so the two end buildings for both the East and West sides keep this heat, making them the hottest buildings on campus. It then completes the loop as it comes back to the cogeneration building (at 120F. or greater) in the JGC parking lot to be heated back up. This system (shown in Figure 3) describes our campus cogeneration system, here on campus. The Engine creates power that is used to heat up stainless steel plates, which consequently heats and reheats water. Within the multiple heating plate systems comes water is remixed(shown as exhaust gasses In Figure 3) and used to heat the "Loop", and the engines residual heat is incorporated sent out through the water pipe network. Once the hot water completes the loop back to the cogeneration building, it is put back through the metal plates to be reheated(don't worry, waste water from showers and toilets are not connected to this system).

Other Information

  • The cogen motor responsible for heating and transporting water through the arterial network, runs on natural gas purchased from PG&E on a monthly bid contract. (Calculating just the right amount of fuel needed per month ensures the best contract price per billing cycle.
  • This system has an alarm 'call' system, which, when the system has an issue, it contacts Tim Freeman(head of HSU maintenance), who then calls in one of his workers to either check out the issue or fix whatever has happened.
  • It is mandatory that the engine is removed from the Cogeneration building to be cleaned, lubricated, and checked every fourteen years.

Known Issues With Our Unit Here On Campus

  • The entire system is directly connected and there is no isolating any part of the system, which means that when one part of the system goes down, the rest is affected.
  • The heating distribution among the Canyon buildings was poorly made, leaving two of the buildings to be constantly heating because there is no ventilation for excess heat.
  • Because there is extremely hot water coming straight out of the co-gen plant, the engineers had to add a cooling system so that the water that went into the buildings could be used for showering.

Another CoGen system here on campus?

Durring the interview with Tim, he mentioned that HSU has a useless 7,000 dollar cogenerating unit that is located by the newer gyms. This was very interesting and troubling that so much money went to waste. Tim continued to say that the reason that it isn't working is because the company hired to set up the control panels for this new unit didn't configure them right for the system that was actuallybeing used. This meant that they couldn't run the engine nearly long enough to have it be a worth while investment without running into some kind of issue. He has told me that there isn't much of an action plan to fix this unit right away but once these is money available, it will be looked in to.

See Also

HSU Forbes Complex Cogeneration  

Wikipedia - Cogeneration

References

  1. "Cogeneration - History Of Cogeneration". Science Encyclopedia. &amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;http://science.jrank.org/pages/1572/Cogeneration-History-cogeneration.html&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;.
  2. U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. &amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;http://www.epa.gov/&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;.
  3. "Combined Heat and Power Partnership". U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. &amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;http://www.epa.gov/chp/&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;.
  4. "Archive for the ‘cogeneration’ Category". Carbonetix. &amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;http://carbonetix.com.au/ &amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;.
  5. "Archive for the ‘cogeneration’ Category". Carbonetix. <http://carbonetix.com.au/ >.

Freeman, Tim. Personal INTERVIEW.

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