Industry
News
will be no significant additional take-up of
district heating for the existing building
stock, particularly the domestic sector,”
the report concludes.
The report notes that barriers to district heating system development in the UK
include risk, with investors perceiving a
lack of experience and knowledge, along
with concerns about financial viability and
potential redundancy of networks if other
heating options emerge.
The DECC maintains that district heating viability depends on raising awareness
of the technology’s benefits and that local
authorities could drive the development
of more systems by showing developers
where there is potential heating demand.
Hay suggested that converting to low-carbon heating would eventually have to
be done a large scale, “street by street,
region by region.”
Alfa Laval Introduces New
Plate Heat Exchangers
Alfa Laval has extended its T-series of
gasketed plate heat exchangers with new
and compact models TL6B, T5B and TL3B,
which are especially suited for HVAC applications. The new units offer a liquid flow
capacity of 20 kg/s ( 44. 1 lb/s), 13 kg/s
( 28. 7 lb/s) and 4 kg/s ( 8. 8 lb/s), respectively.
The heights of the new meters range from
1. 3 m ( 4. 3 ft) for the largest unit to 73 cm
( 28. 7 inches) for the smallest unit. On both
the TL6B and the TL3B, tightening bolts are
placed on the side to facilitate service.
The tall and narrow design and efficient
plate pattern of the TL6B make it ideal for
‘high-theta duties,’ i.e., with long thermal
length. The TL6B’s ability to achieve close
temperature approaches and to increase
heat recovery make it suitable for applications requiring energy efficiency such as
district cooling interchanger, district heating
substation or cooling/heating pressure
breaker applications.
The compact size and efficiency of
the T5B make it suitable for most HVAC
applications, but especially for domestic
hot water systems, general heating and
district heating substations.
their domestic hot water or heating systems
for energy efficiency, even when the flow
is limited. It also increases the possibility to
use close temperature approach in single-pass plate heat exchangers, reducing the
cost of equipment, installation, service
and capacity expansion.
For more information, visit www.
alfalaval.com.
T-series plate heat exchangers
Kansans Support New
Energy Direction
A survey released in May from the
Climate and Energy Project by Republican
polling firm Ayres, McHenry and Associations
shows Kansas voters would like to see a
new direction on energy policy focusing on
renewable energy standards and energy
efficiency. According to survey findings, by a
3-to- 1 margin, Kansans believe it is better to
use renewable energy over nuclear and coal
power. Three out of four would be willing
to pay $2-$5 more every month on their
energy bill if it means generating more
renewable energy. Nearly nine in 10 Kansans
believe renewable energy is a path to stronger
national security. Eight in 10 voters agree
investing in renewables will create more jobs.
Seventy-one percent of Kansans support a
national energy efficiency standard that would
require utilities to procure a set percentage
of their energy from wiser use of the energy
they already generate. Eighty-one percent of
those surveyed believe there needs to be a
national standard that anywhere from 15
percent to 25 percent of the country’s energy come from renewable sources by 2021.
B.C. University to Install
Nexterra System
The University of Northern British
Columbia (UNBC) has selected Nexterra
Energy Corp. to supply and install a turnkey
biomass gasification system to heat UNBC’s
Prince George campus and anchor its new
Northern Bioenergy Innovation Centre. The
system is part of a CA$14.8 million ($12.7
million) bioenergy program that includes
upgrades to road and utility infrastructure,
a new building and a ‘living laboratory’ for
bioenergy research and development.
The Nexterra gasification system will
convert locally sourced wood residue into
clean-burning syngas that will displace up
to 85 percent of the natural gas currently
used to heat the campus. Jointly funded by
the federal and provincial governments, the
project began in June 2009 and will be
complete by mid-2010.
By using wood residue to displace natural
gas, UNBC will reduce fossil fuel consumption by 80,000 GJ/year, the equivalent of
the natural gas required to heat more than
700 homes in British Columbia. The new
system will also reduce the university’s carbon
footprint by approximately 3,500 tonnes
annually, the equivalent of taking 1,000
cars off the road.
MIT Innovates With
Chilled-Beam Cooling
A number of buildings on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus are
being cooled using chilled beams. The MIT
News Office reported May 28 that the beams
– which are equipped with thin fins and look
like long pipes “snaking back and forth like
the security line at the airport” – use cold
water to remove heat from a room.
The beams use from 20 percent to 50
percent less energy than traditional air-conditioning systems, depending on the type
of system, climate and buildings. According
to Peter L. Cooper, manager of sustainability
engineering and utility planning for the
Department of Facilities, the beams also
take one-tenth the volume of fresh air needed
