[source. use. connection.]

the newenergybalance.

energy 2.0

AEI has always worked in interrelated markets. National Labs, R&D, industrial test facilities, infrastructure/central plants, nanotech, biotech, molecular engineering – parallels and affinities become confluences and synergies, and new approaches to old problems emerge. The integrative mindset at the heart of our practice fosters transformative pairings.

An era of transformation is upon us, as non-renewable fuels are joined by an array of newly viable energy sources including photovoltaics, geosourcing, wind power, biofuels, and hydrogen, creating a diverse energy mix. AEI’s historical focus engineering efficiency into energy-intensive facilities has made us leading practitioners of smarter energy use. Our recent work has helped advance the exploration of these new energy sources. Today, AEI is working at paradigm-changing research centers worldwide, assisting the best and brightest to achieve the new energy balance. AEI is providing the technical dexterity needed to connect this eclectic mix of new energy sources with demand-sensitive users via research that will enable universal distribution.

completing the equation.

Inevitably, new challenges and breakthroughs will alter the balance of the energy equation. We’re fervent optimists, bound by critical assessment of hard data, offering insight and innovation to quickly advance valid concepts and just as quickly extinguish hokum. The following pages profile the break-throughs. Let’s begin with making the grid a two-way street…

1870: Energy 1.0, Standard Oil founded1962: Sustainability 1.0, Silent Spring published1997: Sustainability 2.0, Kyoto Protocol2010:

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory | Energy Systems Integration Facility

The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO, is the nation’s primary laboratory for renewable energy and energy efficiency research, demonstration, and deployment. NREL’s Energy Systems Integration Facility (ESIF) is envisioned to transform the nation’s energy infrastructure through systems research and development, integrating the most advanced simulation, data analysis, engineering, and evaluation techniques. AEI is planning, designing, and engineering ESIF’s primary research area, the 65,000 square-foot high bay lab facility.

Research to be conducted in ESIF will focus on connecting remote renewable energy production sources and fuels with broadly dispersed energy users, via established electricity delivery infrastructures. Prominent components and initiatives addressed by AEI’s work include:

research electrical Distribution bus (reDb)Wind turbines, photovoltaic arrays, and other local power

Integrating renewable energy sources nationwide into uniform utility-level power:

generation variously produce incongruent alternating and direct current power. REDB will function as the ultimate power integration “circuit,” consisting of four AC and four DC buses (the largest of which carries up to 2mW), to test technical strategies for uniform conversion and metering to monitor the line and load energy balance. Two critical elements of this circuit are a 13.47 kW Smart Grid and the Power Electronics Node.

high Pressure hyDrogenElectricity produced from naturally existing energies (e.g., wind, solar) is subject to inconsistent generation and demand, creating a need for energy storage. Hydrogen presents a simpler and potentially more scalable means of energy storage than battery technology. Hydrogen also presents a pure energy, zero-emission fuel source for fuel cells, internal combustion engines, and gensets. ESIF high-pressure hydrogen research will advance storage, distribution, generation, quality standards, fueling systems, and fuel cell integration.

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Making the grid a two-way street.

suPervisory control anD Data acquisition (scaDa)New technologies demand robust safety systems. At the heart of every ESIF experiment is a SCADA system that marshals safety PLC (programmable logic controls), central utility, and test process subsystems. AEI’s unique safety- and data integrity-driven SCADA system architecture design deploys a hardware-independent supervisory software governing the array of function-specific control systems.

Central to NREL’s mission is sharing of its research products and processes: the product of NREL is data. Worldwide collaboration has intensified to the degree that facility tours occur at NREL on a daily basis. The SCADA is a powerful tool for disseminating real time data locally at tour stop displays and globally with collaborating principal investigators worldwide.

1- Office2- Dry Lab3- Atrium Knuckle4- Data Center 5- Social + Info Hub6- Tour Route7- High Bay8- Service/Tour Route Stacked

Rendering courtesy of SmithGroup.

Reconceiving the diesel engine for biofuels worldwide.Caterpillar Inc. | Sustainable Energy Research Center

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Caterpillar’s Sustainable Energy Research Center will house engine test cells, material inspection, calibration and material testing dry labs, and particulate matter ISO-6 (Class 1,000) clean rooms to validate the dynamic evolution of biodiesel fuel blends. The chemical constituents coming out of oily tropical plant waste streams in Asia, for instance, are ester heavy while a miscanthus-based feedstock from the Great Plains or Europe produces a completely different set of stoichiometric riddles. Algal presents yet another domain.

Validating new fuels:The nanoparticle effects are both subtle and nonlinear. Today’s researchers must therefore validate these new fuels both for performance/durability and emissions/after-treatment sensitivity. This non-traditional research facility will enable innovation throughout its spaces, intermingling test cells served by 100-ton bridge cranes with collaboration vertices that integrate offices, communal nodes, and labs’ circulation spaces.

Hydrogen as a transportation fuel source.Chevron-Modine | Pure Hydrogen Generator

The potential represented by hydrogen as a transportation fuel source using existing energy infrastructures places it among the most compelling alternative energy solutions. AEI is providing technology modeling, controls design, and commissioning for ChevronTexaco and Modine Manufacturing Company’s (Chevron-Modine) viability testing of the jointly developed Advanced Steam Methane Reformer Pure HydrogenGenerator (PHG).

Chevron-Modine’s immediate objective is to support fuel cell vehicle use with distributed energy stations, increasing the efficiency and reducing the cost and complexity of safe hydrogen generation. The PHG produces extremely high

Modeling viability, testing safety:quality, low cost hydrogen, integrating multiple reactions and exothermic/endothermic heat transfer functions in a manufacturable skidded technology.

An essential requirement for the PHG was that the unit should generate H2 at a rate acceptable for commercial application yet do so within a minimal footprint. AEI created the functional layout of the equipment and drawings for fabrication, configuring equipment as compactly as possible while meeting hazardous NEC (electrical) classifications and preserving maintenance access. AEI also led factory acceptance testing to secure CSA approval, commissioning all subjected equipment against a prescribed pressure testing regimen.

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The confluence of biosystems, agriculture, and engineering.Iowa State University | Biorenewables Research Complex

With the new 240,000 square-foot Biorenewables Research Complex, Iowa State University will address the most pressing issues of agricultural and biosystem industries worldwide. Teaching and research labs are organized into five focus groups – Advanced Machinery Engineering, Production Machinery Systems, Water and Environmental Stewardship Engineering, Animal Production Systems Engineering, and Biological and Process Engineering. ISU is advancing the goals of improving yield and value of biomass energy crops by: reducing water and energy consumption in the current generation of ethanol

Exploring biofuel options:plants; enhancing Iowa’s animal agriculture by improving the digestibility of corn ethanol by-products; and, developing completely new technologies for grasses, wood, and other herbaceous feedstocks.

AEI is providing planning and design services targeting LEED® Gold. Administrative spaces will be cooled by a chilled beam system, heat recovery is provided to preheat/precool incoming outside air via a glycol loop, and a storm water reclaim system will reduce lavatory fresh water use.

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Anticipating nano-size emission particle regulations emerging concurrent to the development of alternative fuels, New York’s Department of Environmental Conservation determined the need for a facility to test such fuels in engines ranging from commuter vehicles to Manhattan’s articulating transit buses. At the same time, the state requested the use and display of sustainable systems in the facility’s operation. This 75,000 square- foot lab will feature a closed loop hybrid geoexchange system.

Expelled test engine energy is captured and, (a) recycled electrically onto the grid, (b) redistributed to other areas of the building, or (c) stored seasonally in the earth via a geoexchange

Protect the environment while showcasing sustainable systems:

borefield. Energy will be similarly extracted from the earth for both heating and cooling. The geoexchange system will be precisely monitored, producing data to optimize its performance and provide benchmarks for future systems to be implemented elsewhere.

A rigorous siting evaluation, conducted by AEI, assisted the client in saving on both building and maintenance costs. The evaluation concluded that by orienting the building to face north, the design would require less material, less building maintenance, and less chiller load, and create an “even” light environment.

A closed-loop hybrid system to capture and reuse expelled energy.State of New York , Department of Environmental Conservation | Alternative Fuel and Vehicle Research Laboratory

CONSIDERED DESIGN STRATEGIES:

COOLINGTOWER

ENERGY FLYWHEEL

HEAT/COOLHEAT PUMP

BUILDING LOAD

BOREFIELD(THERMAL MASS)

TOWER MINIMIZATION (PEAK ONLY)

BOILER MINIMIZATION (PEAK/BACK-UP ONLY)

PROCESS LOAD

REC

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PROCESSHEAT

HIGH GRADE

[ 50°-75°F]

J F M A M J J A S O N D

J F M A M J J A S O N D

J F M A M J J A S O N D

J F M A M J J A S O N D

BOILER

COOLINGTOWER

ENERGY FLYWHEEL

HEAT/COOLHEAT PUMP

BUILDING LOAD

BOREFIELD(THERMAL MASS)

TOWER MINIMIZATION (PEAK ONLY)

BOILER MINIMIZATION (PEAK/BACK-UP ONLY)

PROCESS LOAD

REC

YCLE

PROCESSHEAT

HIGH GRADE

[ 50°-75°F]

J F M A M J J A S O N D

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BOILER

SEASONAL EFFICIENCY GAINS

WINTER

BUILDINGLOAD ONLY

BUILDING &PROCESS

LOAD

SUMMER

Q

T=50F

Q

T=130F

Q

T=70F

Q

T=75F

400% ENERGY SAVINGS OVER BOILER

5-15% ENERGY SAVINGS OVER CHILLER

850% ENERGY SAVINGS OVER BOILER

“FREE” PROCESSHEAT RECLAIM

15-30% ENERGY SAVINGS OVER CHILLER/TOWER

“FREE” PROCESSTHERMAL STORAGE

PROCESS ASSIST PROCESS ASSIST

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REFRIGERATION CYCLE EFFICIENCY MAXIMIZATION

QH

QL

TSOURCE

QL

QH

TSINK

HEATING MODE COOLING MODE

TSOURCETSINK

COPHP TSOURCEƒ COPREFƒ 1TSINK

TOWARDS PERFECT ENERGY RECOVERY

TOTAL LOAD

RECOVERED LOAD

REMAINING LOAD

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Energy recovery and storage, dynamic ventilation, solar energy.Stony Brook University | Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center

Stony Brook University’s new Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center (AERTC) will embody the objectives of the research housed within its walls. With its occupants developing clean and economical energy strategies through research, technical applications, and professional and public outreach, the 50,000 square-foot AERTC facility will demonstrate the integration and application of game-changing technologies and energy sources.

AEI is providing sustainability consulting and engineering design as part of a team that includes national research institutions and regional utilities. AERTC’s mission of innovative energy research, education, and technology deployment is focused on efficiency, conservation, renewable energy, and nanotechnology applications for new and novel sources of energy. From the outset, the design has creatively addressed sustainability and integration. AEI has provided guidance for the facility’s layout with qualitative analysis of the impacts and importance of such considerations as daylighting, fume hood

Embodying efficiency, conservation and energy innovation:

quantities, duct layout, and water reuse. AEI demonstrated the value of incorporating such strategies as total energy recovery, thermal energy storage, dynamic ventilation in the laboratory spaces, and solar energy. These insights informed an architectural response that includes: narrow floor plates that maximize views and daylight harvesting; a “butterfly” roof that provides shading and captures rainwater; and, a south-facing façade of lab and office spaces, which utilizes a photovoltaic (PV) shading system to simultaneously produce electricity while reducing solar heat gain and glare.

In addition to these well-integrated design features, the AERTC uses site- and program-suited energy-efficiency and efficiency-improving technologies to create a healthy and productive working environment for the AERTC’s world-class researchers while saving energy and water. Utilizing the design strategies, an energy cost savings of 25% is projected, compared to a similar code-compliant building.

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A LEED® Platinum research university for a post-oil economy.King Abdullah University of Science and Technology

Sustainable campus planning and engineering on the Red Sea:The new King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) has been built as an international graduate-level academic hub in Thuwal, Saudi Arabia, where interdisciplinary researchers share ideas and discoveries benefiting the region and the world. Environmental stewardship and sustainability are critical components of the five-million square-foot university’s campus as well as the focus of research conducted there.

AEI provided a full breadth of engineering planning and design services to support the university’s fast-track schedule; KAUST’s first class of 2,000 graduate students matriculated three years after the outset of pre-design. The university is sited in a harsh coastal desert landscape, subject to extreme heat, humidity, and occasional high wind, with accompanying system-compromising sand and sea air. AEI’s design solutions were informed by: whole building energy modeling; siting, massing, and organization modeling; and, shading analysis. Orientation modeling optimized air exhaust outlets and fresh air inlets. Modularity schemes enable more efficient operations and maintenance.

KAUST is organized in four interdisciplinary, industry-collaborative research institutes, for which AEI designed over two million square feet of lab space. The Resources, Energy, and Environment Institute focuses on photovoltaic energy, clean combustion, turbine technology, sustainable building materials, and CO2 capture and sequestration. With the objective of carbon footprint reduction, the KAUST campus implements a 4,000 kW photovoltaic array for off-grid electricity, high-performance/high-efficiency MEP systems with air pre-treatment and heat recovery, a solar thermal hot water system, high-performance building skins, high-efficiency water features, water reclamation, and on-site water treatment. KAUST’s sustainable design initiatives are projected to realize 78% reduction in water use and 25% reduction in energy use, relative to a LEED® 2.2 baseline.

Completed in 2009, KAUST is a major portion of a new academic city on the Red Sea that also includes housing, retail, recreation, and educational facilities to accommodate students, researchers, and their families.

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Parallels become synergies.University of Wisconsin | Wisconsin Energy Institute

The University of Wisconsin Energy Institute (WEI) is a new kind of integrative organization working to complete the energy source/distribution/demand equation. The self-described metacenter will provide an objective forum for exchange of ideas on energy issues, and to focus, integrate, and transfer knowledge to better understand challenges and identify needs in energy resources, technology, and sustainability. The University of Wisconsin is a global leader in energy-related education, research, and service activities. WEI’s goal is to establish cross-disciplinary connections and collaborations at UW so that these centers of excellence can work together effectively and synergistically in identifying strategies for clean, efficient energy as a vehicle for the continued growth of the U.S. and world economies.

Discourse, exploration, demonstration, and display:

The WEI building will be sited prominently on UW’s central thoroughfare, overlooking the engineering campus and adjacent to Camp Randall Stadium, its identity unmistakable with a conspicuous PV array, rooftop agri-fuel greenhouse, demonstration vertical axis wind turbine, and energy use intensity displays throughout the facility. The distinctive traffic-facing glass prow of the building will maximize daylighting deep into the facility’s central light well circulation space, further enhanced with a heliostat system. Half of the building’s 200,000 square feet will be taken by laboratory space that will itself be subject to research of laboratory energy-efficiency optimization.

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explore new energy sources. effect smarter energy use. enable greater energy connection.AEI is a technical consulting, design, and engineering firm providing innovative solutions for complex and large scale projects worldwide, supporting the excellence of a diverse clientele. In all our markets of specialization, we are dedicated to confronting challenges facing society with insight and innovation.