Date of Award

2020

Degree Type

Capstone Project

First Advisor

Dr. Bahram Nassersharif

Abstract

The boiler blowdown project, sponsored by Amgen, is a multi-phase project that will include analyses of thermodynamics, systems usage, and the piping system. At the end of this project, the current blowdown system Amgen has will be transformed from an intermittent system to a continuous system. This project will also include the integration of a heat recovery system. This was determined based off of a previous design that was utilized at Amgen’s facilities before transferring to the current intermittent blowdown system. The purpose of the heat recovery system will be to extract the majority of the heat from the blowdown water and transfer it to the intake water for the boiler. The city water would then be sent to a deaerator in order to remove any dissolved gases from the feedwater to prevent any corrosive gasses from entering the boiler system. This process of integrating a heat exchanger and connecting the existing deaerator would act as an energy saving technique, heating up the water for the intake of the boiler, as well as cooling off the blowdown water coming from the boiler through convection heat transfer within the heat exchanger. The cooled water that would result from the work done by the heat exchanger would be then sent directly into the existing cooling tower intake in order to be recycled into the process of expelling excess heat from Amgen facilities. The boiler blowdown now, is intermittent because of a blown pipe that forced Amgen to change how the boilers needed to be blown down. The continuous system was originally designed, but due to pipe issues, an intermittent blowdown system was made. The modification to transform a continuous blowdown must also be a purchasing of a three-way control valve. This will control the water rate coming from the boiler blowdown. If the sensor senses too much water, the valve will change, having the blowdown run directly to the sewer, as it runs now. Through much discussion, combining these pieces into one system would solve the Amgen’s problems monetarily, environmentally and that of a continuous blowdown system.

Comments

Sponsor: Amgen

Company Advisors: Chuck Taylor, Tom Fernandes, Jason Beneker

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