This project provides an energy consumption reduction solution for The English Building. The team will install occupancy sensing light control modules that can automatically shut off a room's lights when not in use. 11 rooms (classrooms and restrooms) have been selected for the improvements.
We have begun data collection to compare baseline energy consumption to energy consumption after installation of the pilot project - energy efficient HVAC control retrofit. Sensors needed were determined and installed. Data collection has begun with 4 weeks of data so far. Initial review of the data has identified several challenges with the HVAC already including heating valves that are leaking by providing heat where not required, which explains why the Air Handler is getting rid of heat even in the winter. The variable air volume system is also not varying as it should. This is demonstrating some pitfalls of pneumatically controlled HVAC systems.
Hundreds of students have been participating in the event to date, resulting in over 100 tons of CO2 emissions being averted and over 120 megawatt hours of electricity being saved.
The project began in the start of spring 2018 semester and had four phases, each phase consisting of 2 months approximately. The first phase consisted of analyzing the feedstock sources from the dining hall for their energy content at laboratory scale in batch reactions and potential economical returns. In doing so, our team determined which food category had the greatest conceivable benefit to campus, based on quantifying the available waste and value recovery using HTL. The second phase of this project will consist of converting the oil phase of the laboratory HTL process into a refined product for the sustainability project. During this phase, the biooil was modified via chemical treatment to refine the petroleum alternative into a usable product that can substitute a campus cost. This portion of the work was essential to validating food waste HTL processing, as our projects can specifically improve UIUC sustainability. The following weeks focused on preparing a larger scale assessment for expanding the HTL scope of feedstocks for further energy recovery using waste at larger scale, as well as determining the potential impacts on campus with sizable amounts of food waste.
Last year in competition our new car earner us 12th place with 614mpg. This is much lower than we had hoped for but we have identified our problems and are ready for a much better season. Our biggest issue was we encountered a fuel leak. The leak was not discovered until the last day of competition when it could not be fixed in time. This had a large impact on our fuel economy and kept us from being successful. We also had a bad gear ratio which meant we had to run our engine more than we would have liked to. Finally, we had a lot of issues with our body panels that increased our drag. We have resolved the fuel leak and gear ration, and are redoing some of our body panels to correct this. We hope to bounce pack and break 1000mpg this year.
The project is progressing, but all equipment is currently sitting in purchasing waiting to be released, built, and delivered.
The project has had many successful test trials using small amounts of product in our test kitchen, and we are anxiously awaiting the production equipment to arrive to start using more of the produce that is being grown.
The project has had much opportunity to develop test recipes and trial the equipment that has arrived, but is waiting on some key pieces to arrive. The harvester being provided by funding from Dining has also arrived and been tested in the field with this year’s harvest.
The seasoning line has arrived and is installed. The extruder system modifications PO has been issued and is in design/build process currently. We have been having a series of meetings to complete this work.
The sink has been fully installed and is meeting all goals of the project. Water usage from hand washing is down as a direct result of this installation, along with providing awareness of the use of water in a processing facility.
Spring 2017: Landscape Architecture student Cameron Letterly submitted proposal to SSC, along with Illinois Extension’s Eliana Brown. Cameron graduated.
Summer 2017: Cameron completed initial design work for garden
Fall 2017: Staff turnover; Cameron left to start MBA program and Katherine Gardiner was brought on as Communications Lead
Winter 2017-2018: Staff addition of Landscape Architect student Layne Knoche
Spring 2018: Layne designing Extension pamphlets to base future RORG communications products upon, with assistance from Eliana and Katherine
Summer 2018: Staff addition of Landscape Architect Master’s Candidate Kayla Myers; Layne and Kayla work to re-design garden.
Fall 2018: Grounds will remove rock and install erosion control fabric.
Winter 2018-2019: Kayla Myers and Layne Knoche to work with Architectural Review Committee for final design approval and plant suppliers to arrange spring planting.
Spring 2019: Cement finishers will install the sidewalk. Afterwards, Master Gardeners, Master Naturalists, and the Red Bison student group will install the plantings.
Rooms 104 and 222 of the Illini Union are both utilized extensively throughout the day. Each room maintains a high level of foot traffic and visibility within the building. An assessment team concluded that transitioning the old lighting fixtures to LED would have an overwhelmingly positive impact on energy consumption and unnecessary waste. The overarching goal of this project is to promote sustainability from within the Illini Union. The smaller scope of this project is to reduce carbon emissions and save energy by utilizing LED lighting fixtures within rooms 104 and 222 in the Illini Union. The lighting levels generated by the new LED fixtures are more than adequate for the usage, and end users and staff have been very satisfied.
We have finished our final solar energy system design and have gained approval from an ECE professor (Philip Krein) as well as an electrical engineer in F&S (Joseph Y. Youakim). We are waiting on the parts for the final solar energy system to be purchased by our faculty sponsor. Our structural design nearly has approval from F&S and we are compiling a list of items to purchase.
The Fall 2018 semester was used as a planning stage for the Bee Campus signage project. On November 15th, the Bee Campus USA committee met to discuss the content and design on each of the permanent signs. Additionally, we discussed locations to consider for placing the signage. During Spring 2019, I plan to have the locations of the signage approved by March. Purchasing and orders should be completed by April.
We have bought the bees and hives, installed the bees, and built the fence around the hives. The bees were not established enough to take much honey from them so we stayed on the safe side and allowed the bees to keep all their honey for overwintering. Recently we bought two more hives and are hoping to split our current hives to have a total of 4 hives at the sustainable farm. As the bees now have foundation built up they should start producing more honey and brood than last year, and we are expecting to be able to harvest ample honey next Fall.
The BIF project was initially scheduled to begin in January 2018, but was on hold until F&S and the College received word from the state regarding the general contractor award. The kickoff meeting took place in March 2018 and a planning meeting followed in April.
On Monday, May 21st, construction kicked off and is expected to be complete summer 2019. Thus far, the following work has been completed (64% complete): removal of rooftop garden; insallation of steel, metal, and concrete decking; roof membrane installed; installation of roof drain lines; installation of exterior and interior walls; window and ductwork installation; HVAC updates/upgrades; above ceiling mechanicals and sprinkler lines installed; GWB taping and sanding with painting underway.
After a few delays, the geothermal exchange project at WPP is progressing. Please see the attached report submitted to the Student Sustainability Committee.
SSC awarded Student Space Society $10,000 to build a reusable rocket.
Inner Voices Fall 2018 semesterly report submitted to SSC in December 2018.
