UMass Magazine Online

Spring 2006

Departments

Features

Getting There from Here

Full Steam Ahead

Beyond the Bluster

Cashing in Her Chips

The Art & Science of Diversity

Twins Be Nimble

Feature

Full Steam Ahead: more images

Fueled by natural gas and about the size of a helicopter engine, the primary turbine (1) cranks out 10 megawatts of electricity. Gas exhaust from the turbine measures 900 degrees; a heat recovery boiler (2) captures it and converts it to steam. A high-pressure oil-fired boiler (3A) contributes more high-pressure steam to the system; this fuels a high-pressure steam turbine (4) that produces another four megawatts of electricity. Two more oil-fired boilers (3B and 3C) produce steam at 100 pounds of pressure. (The boilers are equipped with selective catalytic reduction units to take out carbon monoxide and nitrous oxide.) The high pressure steam powers a second steam turbine (6) to generate, at capacity, two-and-a-half megawatts of electricity. Some of the high-pressure steam is diverted to the far reaches of the campus (5); the extra pressure is needed to reach such outlying spots at Orchard Hill. The remaining steam, at about 25 pounds of pressure, is funneled to the rest of campus. (7). As the campus grows and demand for heating and cooling increases in coming years, the plant has room to add another boiler (3D).(illustration by Jacqueline Ronan ’06)

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Full Steam Ahead

Full Steam Ahead: more images