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ADVANCED “COMBINED HEAT AND POWER” SYSTEM AT UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND TO BE DEDICATED
DTE Energy Technologies, Inc. and Kathabar Systems have joined forces to demonstrate an advanced combined heat and power (CHP) system at The Center for Environmental Energy Engineering (CEEE) at the University of Maryland. This system simultaneously generates power and provides dehumidification to support improved space conditioning for commercial buildings that substantially increases the energy efficiency of the building. This demonstration is supported by the U.S. Department of Energy Distributed Generation (DG) program.
A dedication ceremony and reception will be held at the Chesapeake Building on the University of Maryland campus. Speaking will be Avram Bar-Cohen, PhD, chair, Mechanical Engineering, University of Maryland, Pat Hoffman, program manager Distributed Generation, DOE, Mike Faubert, PhD, vice president, DTE Energy Technologies and Bill Szabo, regional vice president, Sales, Kathabar Systems.
The CEEE test program will be one of the first demonstrations to show that liquid desiccant systems are reliable and practical for commercial buildings. The system combines a 75 kilowatt (kW) energy|now generator produced by DTE Energy Technologies with a KBERS liquid desiccant unit produced by Kathabar Systems. The electricity produced by the energy|now unit displaces utility purchases and heat recovered from its exhaust is used to power the dehumidification system. The Kathabar desiccant unit directly dehumidifies the ventilation makeup air that is supplied to the building, which substantially reduces the load on the existing air conditioning system.
Pre-engineered and prepackaged CHP provides energy savings, emissions reduction, power reliability and energy conservation for commercial applications. Dehumidification is a challenge in commercial buildings. Combining a liquid desiccant system with a CHP package eliminates much of the energy required to provide effective space conditioning. Using a liquid desiccant unit provides building owners capital cost savings for air-conditioning equipment, improved indoor air quality, greater temperature and humidity control and lower emissions.
The system is most effective in areas that will benefit from improved space conditioning such as office buildings, research facilities, laboratories, health care facilities, pharmaceutical manufacturing, clean rooms and microelectronics manufacturing. Dehumidification technologies typically use fossil fuels to regenerate the liquid desiccant. Coupled with CHP technology, recovered heat is used to support the dehumidification process.
DTE Energy Technologies provided a 75 kW generator which is packaged with an integrated heat recovery system for the planned test program. The system can reduce energy costs while increasing energy independence and reliability for commercial and industrial customers. Featuring a low emission and low cost automotive natural gas-fired engine, the energy|now unit is ideally suited for base load and waste heat utilization applications. It also has the capability to support peak base-load and full-load requirements, providing full power in the event of utility outages.
The ENI unit offers a pre-engineered “packaged” design, which reduces up-front engineering, site design and installation costs. With the flexibility to support both indoor and outdoor installations, energy|now CHP products can provide both chilled and hot water, enabling commercial and industrial customers to lower their energy bills. Kathabar Systems contributed a free lease of a 4000 CFM liquid desiccant air cooling and dehumidification system to the test program. It is used to cool and dehumidify the building ventilation air. It uses heat recovered from the DTE energy|now generator to power the air cooling and dehumidification process. By pre-conditioning the building ventilation air with the Kathabar unit, the refrigeration cooling load of the building is reduced by about 25 percent.