Please see attached the scope change document. This request suggested the use of Eco-Counter instead of developing a system in-house by the students of Roly Poly team.
Located just south of Allen Hall/LAR and west of McKinley Health Center, the Red Oak Rain Garden solves local flooding issues while providing an outdoor space for the UIUC community. This SSC grant provides support for sidewalk modifications and additions, expanding pedestrian and cyclist transportation while strengthening flood control. The project team will also install benches to encourage community members to use the space throughout the year. For outreach, the project team will host a ribbon cutting event that celebrates the upgraded rain garden. Similarly, individuals can follow the rain garden @RainGardenUIUC on all social media platforms.
Illini Hillel Center for Jewish Life on Campus (the Center) has been working toward creating a more sustainable Center for the last few years. Starting with a student driven initiative to purchase and install a filtered, reusable water bottle filler, the Center has been working to improve its environmental impact in more ways. We would like to prepare a locally sourced Sabbath dinner for our community, using that time together to educate the community about our sustainability initiatives.
This project was originally proposed by Mechanical Engineering students for Abbott Power Plant in spring 2016. At that time, the SSC members did not want to support solar on the co-generation power plant because it uses fossil fuels. They asked if we could use it on a different campus roof, and we considered all the large or medium campus roofs.
The SSC asked us to identify a building that could have solar added, so I reached out to Applied Health Sciences in 2016 for approval to use the Speech and Hearing Sciences Building. Since that time, Kristine Chalifoux confirmed that the roof is strong enough for solar panels, due to a previous change in the insulation materials. Brian Finet completed design drawings for installing solar on the full available roof, and the Architecture Review Committee confirmed the building is allowed to have solar added.
After the engineering design work, the remaining funds were about $35K. This fall, we received a construction estimate from Jeff Holt for upgrading the electrical system to handle a 70 kW solar PV array. It would cost about $42K if done in conjunction with your capital project, just to get the wiring up to the roof and ready to punch through and install panels later. Rather than ask the SSC for additional funding and an extension, I am returning the remaining dollars and putting this project on indefinite hold.
The overall campus goals for on-campus solar generation are listed in the 2015 Illinois Climate Action Plan (iCAP), which will be updated for 2020. The current objective is to generate 25,000 MWh/year of on-campus solar, and we are currently at about 7,000 MWh/year. Per the direction received from Chancellor Jones, we are working on a second large-scale solar farm to meet the goal, rather than several smaller-scale projects.
The second solar farm is planned to be about 12,000 kW in name-plate capacity, significantly more than the 70 kW rooftop array for Speech and Hearing. Rooftop solar is still an option, and several departments continue to install them at the building scale. The design drawings are posted online through the iCAP Portal, at https://icap.sustainability.illinois.edu/project/speech-and-hearing-rooftop-solar-pvs, for future use.
The goal of this project was to support installation of high density bike parking in an area of campus with high needs for additional bike racks, and provide an amenity for campus cyclists with a unique shelter structure protecting parked bikes from the winter elements at the Main Library. This funding purchased the bike shelter and high-density racks. The shelter will be installed at the Main Library, after completion of the MCORE construction work on Wright Street and Armory Avenue.
The target dates listed in the original application have become irrelevant as two years have passed since the application date. However, this year the team built a new carbon fiber chassis and body for the first time in multiple years which was one of the major goals listed in the original application. The car was named EV-1. Because many of the project leads graduated, the team went through drastic leadership changes and lost most of its knowledge about carbon fiber work. Tremendous efforts were made by the remaining members, which ultimately led to our team relearning how to work with carbon fiber. This allowed us to create our first new and completely customized carbon fiber chassis. This year’s chassis design allowed for a decrease in weight and higher structural strength compared to prior designs. The team also switched fuel categories to keep up with the growing focus on battery powered vehicles. Doing so entailed manufacturing a battery powerful enough to power the concept car as well as designing a safe battery management system. The battery successfully passed the official Shell Eco-Marathon safety inspection. Switching to the battery electric fuel category reduced the overall weight of the vehicle as there is no longer a bulky hydrogen fuel cell and hydrogen cylinder in the car. The team participated in the Shell Eco-Marathon 2018 competition on the Sonoma Raceway. EV-1 passed the technical and safety inspections which are a set of rigorous tests performed to ensure the safety of the driver and other participants. Many teams do not make it past these inspections. While last minute technical difficulties disabled the team from qualifying to compete, EV-1 was featured in the front row of Shell’s family portrait.
The Bevier Café is a learning laboratory where FSHN students to get hands on experience running a food service establishment. This project will reduce the carbon footprint of the Bevier Cafe by installing a new, energy efficient, ventless dishwashing machine. The café will showcase the improvements to students and the general public. Students will get experience planning and purchasing equipment that matches the university’s sustainability efforts. Additionally, students will be exposed to the process and improvements through facility lectures and educational tours.
The Sustainable Student Farm (SSF) was started in 2009 with a grant from the SSC. The goal of the SSF is to provide fresh, locally grown food to University Housing to reduce the carbon foot print of food service at the U of I, and to show students the health benefits, quality, and superior taste and flavor of locally grown food. This SSC grant supports the Department of Crop Sciences as they plan to move the SSF from its current location at the Fruit Research Farm to the Landscape Horticulture Research Center (LHRC), adjacent to the arboretum. This new location is closer to the campus core, so students can better access SSF. Additionally, this new site is larger, allowing SSF to increase production output. To maximize this move’s efficiency and sustainability, SSF will hire an external firm to complete a feasibility study that identifies the most economical and space-efficient approach to construct the wash/pack/storage facility and space for equipment storage.
The Registered Student Organization, Illini Eco Concept, will design and build a battery powered concept car to participate in the annual Shell Eco-marathon. In doing so, the team hopes to promote the use of sustainable energy in the automotive field and educate UIUC students about the technology behind electric vehicles. The automotive industry is predicted to greatly decrease its carbon footprint if society shift towards the use of electric vehicles over internal combustion engine vehicles. However, there is often backlash against the use of electric vehicles due to misconceptions about their abilities. This student team will educate its members to design and manufacture an energy efficient electric vehicle and the ecological advantages it can offer.
The Gable Home was designed and built by students to compete in the 2009 US Dept. of Energy's Solar Decathlon Competition. Following the competition, the house returned to campus and was located at the I Hotel until Spring 2017 at which point it had to be moved due to the expansion of the research park. Since then a team of students and faculty have been working on finding a new permanent location for the Gable Home. A suitable location was found at the Energy Farm on Race St. in Urbana. The house is a valuable educational tool for students from many units on campus to visit and experience occupying a space that is powered solely by the sun and uses passive and active systems to create desirable thermal comfort throughout the year. This SSC grant provides support for the installation costs to make Gable Home a permanent fixture at the Energy Farm, so it meets building codes.
The Media Commons at the University of Illinois Undergraduate Library offers all U of I students, faculty and staff access to our Video Production Studio, and other Media Commons Studios. The studio is primarily utilized by students of all majors and interests for the purpose of capturing high quality video footage, using professional studio equipment (cameras, lights, etc.) This project replaces the current outdated, high energy consumption fluorescent lighting sources with a far more energy-efficient, low heat producing, and longer-lasting LED lighting system. LED lights also eliminate the need to replace bulbs, especially fluorescent bulbs which are constructed of hazardous materials.
Chemical fertilizers necessary to sustain the agricultural practices on campus are significant sources of waterway pollution downstream from UIUC. These pollutants, primarily in the form of nitrate, can contaminate drinking water, leading to health concerns such as blue-baby syndrome. Currently, the contribution of agricultural practices to this nitrate pollution from campus is unknown. This project team will build two “Nitrate Monitoring Stations” that will continuously monitor the flow of water and agricultural pollutants. These stations will transmit the data they collect remotely, allowing easy access to UIUC students and community members. The first monitoring station will be located at the exit point for all water from the UIUC South Farm watershed and the second will be at the exit point for water flowing from the Animal Science Dairy Facility.
This student-led project introduces the UIUC community to innovative forms of 3D printing that use sustainable materials. The project team will 3D print clay and create an extruder system capable of incorporating the use of sawdust into the filament. The School of Architecture produces a considerable amount of sawdust in the fabrication labs (about 40 pounds per semester for each fab-lab). Presently sawdust is considered a waste. By repurposing sawdust, the School of Architecture will reduce its waste, educate students about a new form of 3D printing, and foster sustainable behavior within the community.
This graduate student-led team will augment management of food waste produced through the dining halls on UIUC campus, via hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) for biofuel production. This is an expansion of Dr. Yuanhui Zhang’s Environment-Enhancing Energy (E2E) research program focusing on Waste-to-Energy. During the Fall 2017 preliminary study, the student team proved that mixed and individual food waste can effectively convert into biocrude oil with different oil yields under different operating conditions. This SSC grant supports the team’s efforts to pilot the process on a larger scale, converting up to one ton of food waste to biocrude oil per day. For outreach, the team will offer tours, display a mobile demonstration, publish their results on campus media, and engage undergraduate students in the research process.
This student-led project upgrades one floor or 19 variable air volume (VAV) boxes to Direct Digital Controls and room level occupancy sensors in Engineering Hall. These measures will allow for scheduling and programming the air flow to the areas served, which will reduce the energy consumption for heating, cooling, and electricity. Currently the space is utilizing pneumatically controlled devices, which are not able to be adjusted on a schedule, so they run constantly at one specific set point. This results in a lack of ability to adjust to changing environmental conditions and results in less than optimal operating conditions. Making these scheduled systems for different settings will lower the unnecessary energy consumption in a building that gets a lot of use.
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.
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.
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.
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.
SSC awarded Student Space Society $10,000 to build a reusable rocket.
