District Energy - 2007 Fourth Quarter

development of the construction documents and basis of design criteria, through construction, startup, commissioning, and environmental and operational performance testing.

Optimum Efficiency +
Environmental Performance

When the new $120 million central heating plant begins full operation in spring, it will produce nearly twice as much steam energy and five times more electric power than the existing plant. However, its principal advantage as a district steam plant using advanced CHP technologies is that with all this power being generated, it will actually produce seven times less greenhouse gas emissions, on a tons-per-year basis, than the older central heating plant. By using treated

Act did not require either a public hearing for the facility or the filing of an environmental impact report.

The CHP plant will achieve optimum energy efficiency with a combined 10 MW combustion turbine, 6. 5 MW of high- and low-pressure steam turbines, a heat recovery steam generator and three package boilers – each rated for 131,000 lb/hr of steam (fig. 2). Four package boilers had originally been planned. However, after the university invested $43 million in energy performance improvements throughout campus, reducing steam and electric demand by an average of 20 percent, the CHP plant was downsized during design by one package boiler.

The signature building housing the energy facility anchors the northwest corner of campus and is sited next to the Mullins Center, a sports arena, and faces the main athletic fields. A ‘big roof’ concept covers both the 45,000-sq-ft energy building and a 40,000-sq-ft tank farm area, with the entire complex ‘reading’ architecturally as one building complex.

Comprehensive air permit applications filed with the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection (MA DEP) included air quality and noise impact assessments and control technology evaluations. The boilers are permitted on the basis of large industrial boilers, limiting particulate emissions (PM10) to 0.02 lb/ MMBtu on gas and 0.04 lb/MMBtu on oil. For NOx, the permit levels were 5.0 ppmvd on natural gas and 9.0 ppmvd on oil for the package boilers. Similarly, the NOx permit level was 6.0 ppmvd for the com-

TURN TO
A LEADER.
The new central heating plant
will produce nearly twice as much
steam and five times more power
than the existing plant – and
seven times less greenhouse
gas emissions.

wastewater effluent, reducing groundwater demand and emitting fewer pollutants than current operations, the new CHP system will actually cause improvements to local environmental conditions. To this point, the state enforcement agency for the Massachusetts Environmental Policy

Figure 2. UMass Amherst Central Heating Plant Steam Flow Diagram.

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