Project Background
Plant Operations is responsible for the operation and maintenance of our main infrastructure – grounds, parking, custodial, maintenance, utilities, energy, design & construction. Most people do not realize how big UW really is. With over forty thousand students and nearly nine million square feet of space, we are a sizable city.
One of our largest assets is Class A Central Plant feeding a sophisticated district energy system connecting all academic buildings within Ring Road. The plant supplies domestic hot water, domestic cold water, chilled water, steam, etc. Every year we use over 125 tons of salt to soften the water that is provided by the city. This is a significant amount of salt which translates to a large amount of biproduct at the end of the softening process.
Plant Operations wants to explore options of how to re-purpose the biproduct from the water softeners. What can be done with the effluent? Is if practical to use it for road winter de-icing? What would be the main challenge?
Project Examples
- Literature review of existing methods to re-purpose effluent
- Working with Plant Operations to create a pre-feasibility study
- Testing the methods on a micro-scale