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Project Updates for collection: 2015 iCAP Objectives
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- Associated Project(s):Attached Files:
Grand Challenge Learning sustainability course
Associated Project(s):Dustin Allred teaches GCL126 Urban Sustainability.
Chenxi and Morgan to meet with OMA representatives
Associated Project(s):Morgan Johnston and Chenxi Jiang have requested a meeting with Dave Boehm and other Building Maintenance representatives to discuss the options for implementing a new water conservation strategy for stand-alone building rooftop cooling towers.
ENVS 301 students' presentations
Associated Project(s):Attached are the presentations prepared by the students in ENVS 301. The course syllabus is also attached.
Caceres Lab plans to aid campus sustainability
Associated Project(s):The Cáceres Lab has indicated support for measuring the watershed point identified by the ALUFS SWATeam for measuring stormwater impacts from South Farms. A meeting is planned for May 2017 with sustainability staff and lab representative, Chris Holmes.
iWG agenda May 2, 2017
Associated Project(s):See attached agenda for iWG meeting held on May 2nd, 2017.
Attached Files:iWG meeting minutes May 2, 2017
Associated Project(s):see file
Attached Files:note about cycles of concentration for pilot studies
Associated Project(s):We set COC = 5 for pilot studies.
eGen007 recommendation for second solar farm
Associated Project(s):Attached is a recommendation submitted by the EGEN SWATeam for consideration. We believe this recommendation will advance sustainability goals set forth by the 2015 iCAP.
The EGEN SWATeam appreciates any feedback resulting from consideration of this recommendation.
Attached Files:EGen007 Solar Farm 2.0 recommendation - Submittal
Associated Project(s):The eGen SWATeam submitted a recommendation to the iWG stating, "Start a project to expand the existing Solar farm, or install a new large scale solar installation in a new location."
See attached the SWATeam recommendation EGen007 Solar Farm 2.0 complete with comments from all the eGen SWATeam members.
Attached Files:Water & ALUFS Joint Meeting Minutes 4/27/17
Associated Project(s):Water & Stormwater SWATeam and the Agriculture, Land Use, Food & Sequestration (ALUFS) SWATeam had a joint meeting to discuss shared objectives and project ideas.
Attached Files:April 21st, 2017 Meeting
Associated Project(s):Meeting Minutes 4/21/17
In attendance:
Ximing Cai
Pete Varney
Brian Farber
Yanfeng Ouyang
Summary:
This meeting serve to continue discussion on campus fleet, bike parking, and campus parking. Also, Ximing Cai was introduced to the team.
Topics:
Discussion on Campus Fleet
Pete led a discussion on campus fleet efforts. He stated that converting campus fleet to EVs and CNG vehicles would have a large effect on campus emissions, and that campus utility is interested in learning about electric vehicles, but there are certain obstacles to converting campus fleet. First it would cost about half a million dollars or more. These costs are largely attribute to building infrastructure for CNG refueling systems. In addition, campus fleet vehicles for Facilities and Services as well as housing do not drive very far, so the fuel savings would be small. However, converting campus fleet would be practical as the vehicles do not travel off campus, meaning there will be no inconvenience in refueling the vehicles.
Bike Parking
We continued our discussion on bike parking from the last meeting. One of our concerns, given the cost of the permits, is security. Anyone who is paying for a permit must be certain that there bike is secure. We might want to have security cameras.
Parking
We discussed efforts to encourage less driving through parking incentives. Pete suggested having a passenger-car-free campus zone by placing parking outside of certain zones of campus. This idea was well received by the group and generally liked. However, we discussed challenges to any parking changes. We discussed specific proposals to adjust parking prices, shown here:
- Try to price people out of parking and mitigate this by reducing the price at other locations
- Allow flexible payment in percentage of salary
- Have and “auction” in which whoever pays the largest percent of their salary gets the closest location.
- Remove or lift parking cap so that wealthier parkers pay more and thus provide more revenue
- Have a private company raise rates on parking
Then, we discussed challenges to these proposals:
- Parking is important to unions – any changes may result in strikes or political conflict
- The sentiment of Parking and Campus master plan does not necessarily agree with people parking farther away – an objective that would be achieved through a passenger-car-free zone
- Hiring private company likely not a good idea – their primary motivation is profit
- City of Champaign changed parking ordinances so that spaces at churches, fraternities, etc, decrease
Our next meeting is TBD.
EGEN SWATeam Meeting (4.13.17)
Associated Project(s):The EGEN SWATeam held another bi-weekly meeting. Topics covered include:
- Ximing Cai's [in attendance] vision for iSEE and SWATeams
- Developing a recommendation to expand UIUC solar farm.
- Developing a recommendation for another clean energy PPA
- Cost savings for geothermal systems and opportunities for implementation at solar farm and new building sites
Attached Files:PWR SWATeam Minutes 3/29
Associated Project(s):Meeting Minutes 3/29
During this meeting, the PWR SWAT Team coordinated with Marya Ryan, the new Zero Waste Coordinator. We discussed previous campus efforts for multiple different projects like composting and recycling as well as introduced ourselves to one another.
The SWAT Team also was updated on progress with reviewing the Paper Policy Draft comments and will finish this review by next meeting.
Furthermore, a discussion of composting efforts on campus was discussed and an effort to create a comprehensive map of waste pickup routes will be created.
Next meeting is TBD.
Attached Files:EGEN SWATeam Meeting (3.30.17)
Associated Project(s):The EGEN SWATeam held another bi-weekly meeting. Topics covered include:
- Performing preliminary assessment for clean energy PPA
- Fact sheet using solar farm as basis to estimate land needs and costs of additional solar farm to meet iCAP goal
- Update on biomass boiler at energy farm
- Identifying opportunities to purseu implementation of ground source heat pump (GSHP) technology on campus.
Attached Files:Water & Stormwater SWAT Meeting Minutes 3/30/2017
Associated Project(s):Updates and discussion of greywater meter, greywater design standards, cooling tower cycles of concentration, water use dashboard, and student outreach.
Attached Files:Invitation to bid published
Associated Project(s):The "invitation for bid" for our campus's purchase of offsets (both to replace those we sold to BPTN, and also to open our "offsets storeroom") has now been released, and bids will be opened in mid-April.
iWG meeting agenda March 28, 2017
Associated Project(s):see file
Attached Files:iWG meeting minutes March 28, 2017
Associated Project(s):see file
Attached Files:Water Use and Cycles of Concentration (COC) in a cooling tower
Associated Project(s):Below is information provided by Jeremy Overmann, B.S. Ch. E., Water Treatment Specialist, on the water use and cycles of concentration (COC) in a cooling tower, as requested after a Land and Water SWAT meeting.
"
Water SWAT members,
Here is some more information regarding the cooling tower discussion at today’s meeting.
This first graph shows how much water a typical 100 ton Cooling Tower uses per hour, and how this changes when the tower is operated at various Cycles of Concentration (COC)
NOTE: a 1 ton cooling tower can remove 15,000 BTU/hr of heat.
Most standard chemically treated Cooling Towers use unsoftened water and operate between 4 – 6 COC, depending on the source water quality (also called Make-Up water) and the efficacy of the chemical treatment program.
As COC increases, the potential for formation of calcium scale (and possibly other types of scale) increases. Scale deposits reduce the energy efficiency of the chiller and the cooling tower, and result in the need for labor intensive cleaning to remove the scale.
The following table shows the relationship between volume of Cooling Tower blowdown (bleed), blowdown rate (% bleed), COC, and total water usage.
Cycles of Concentration is controlled by choosing the rate of blowdown. This is done by controlling the blowdown (bleed) valve at the bottom of the tower.
COC
BLOWDOWN
TOTAL USAGE (Makeup)
Gallons
Percent
Gallons
Percent
1.5
10,000
100%
15,000
100%
2
5000
50%
10,000
66%
3
2500
25%
7500
50%
4
1667
17%
6667
44%
5
1250
13%
6250
42%
6
1000
10%
6000
40%
7
833
8%
5833
39%
8
714
7%
5714
38%
Note: Evaporation = 5000 Gallons
In a “Zero” blowdown cooling tower, softened water is used, and cycles of concentration ranges from 20 – 100 or higher. To achieve proper water chemistry to provide corrosion protection, usually need to operate at > 20 COC.
During the Champaign Regional Office Building study, the highest COC achieved was 51. The blowdown valve is turned off, however some water is lost from leaks in the tower, and from droplets of water that escape with the air that is drawn through the tower.
COC
BLOWDOWN
TOTAL USAGE (Makeup)
Gallons
Percent
Gallons
Percent
1.5
10,000
100%
15,000
100%
5
1250
13%
6250
42%
10
555
6%
5550
37%
25
208
2%
5208
35%
50
102
1%
5102
34%
75
66
0.7%
5066
34%
100
51
0.5%
5051
34%
200
25
0.3%
5025
34%
Note: Evaporation = 5000 Gallons
"