For Utilities, Four Is Better Than One

Scientists at the National University of Singapore have developed an eco-friendly, four-in-one utilities generation plant.

AsianScientist (Oct. 19, 2017) – Scientists in Singapore announced in a press release that they have invented a system that can generate electricity, water, air-conditioning and heat all at once.

Typically, the generation of electricity, water, cooling and heating is performed by separate systems, making the processes suboptimal in terms of energy and cost efficiency. Consequently, the environmental footprint is significantly larger.

In this study, a team of scientists led by Associate Professor Ernest Chua from the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the National University of Singapore (NUS) has developed a unique smart quad-generation plant that produces all four key utilities simultaneously using a single, integrated system.

The smart plant uses natural gas to power micro turbines to produce electricity. Waste heat generated from exhaust gas in the process is efficiently recovered and channeled back to power chillers to produce chilled water, which is required to cool and dry air for air-conditioning.

The plant is also able to recycle non-potable water, such as rain water and water discharged from showers and wash basins, to produce drinking water. Waste heat generated from the plant could also be used to produce hot water or steam.

The quad-generation plant even incorporates a dual-dehumidification system, which is designed by the NUS Engineering team after extensive research, to increase the efficiency of air-conditioning provision. Using novel super adsorbent materials and membranes, this system removes up to 50 to 60 percent of moisture from air—optimal for human comfort—to enable cooling to take place faster.

In addition, this unique system can cool air with water that is chilled to just 13 to 18 degrees Celsius, instead of the usual lower temperature of 4 to 7 degrees Celsius. This contributes significantly to the plant’s overall efficiency as an increase in the temperature of chilled water by 1 degree Celsius translates into energy savings of about 3.5 to 4 per cent.

Specially designed for use in tropical countries, the plant offers greater energy and cost savings and is more space efficient. Moreover, this novel system can significantly reduce carbon dioxide emission by more than 30 percent while meeting the various needs of electricity, water, cooling and heating.

“Overall, this novel approach could cut energy usage by 25 to 30 percent and the 4-in-1 plant is also less bulky. Users can also enjoy cheaper and a more resilient supply of utilities. Furthermore, this approach could reduce Singapore’s carbon emission by 2 to 4 percent at business-as-usual levels,” Chua said.

The NUS Engineering team also incorporated smart features into the plant, such as real-time tracking of power consumption, and controlling valves and pumps remotely. This will facilitate evaluation of energy efficiency and optimization of the different processes based on the specific needs of each community of users.

“The quad-generation plant is designed to be a distributed power entity. It is particularly suitable for serving clusters of buildings as well as underground cities, where key resources can be shared to reap economies of scale. As power grids could be vulnerable to national security threats, our smart plant could also serve as a resilient distributed energy resource to continue to provide these essential utilities and minimize disruptions to daily lives,” Chua added.

The NUS Engineering team hopes to explore opportunities to commercialize and test-bed some of their patented technologies that have been developed from this project.

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Source: National University of Singapore.
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