a case study of two upcoming renewable energy alternatives that can be integrated into the building for optimal energy efficiency of the building.

1. BIOMASS AS A RENEWABLE RESOURCE:
Application in Buildings case study

3. The most common biomass used is “woody” biomass comprising of trees and woody plants and leaves,
grown in a forest, woodland, or rangeland environment that are the by-products of forest management.
The biomass is typically burned as chips on a large-scale and wood pellets for small-scale applications.
KETCHIKAN FEDERAL BUILDING
Location: Ketchikan, Alaska
Purpose: Hot water distribution system
Application chosen: biomass heating technology by
means of wooden pellet boiler system
Boiler specifications: 1 million BTUs per hour
Efficiency: 85.6%

6. METHODOLOGY
The wood pellets are stored in a silo outside of the building and are augured into the building
when the low-level signal is given from the fuel bin level sensor. The pellets automatically
replenish the fuel bin and the conveyor stops when the upper level sensor is triggered.
 The fuel is burned efficiently using staged combustion air
injection. The hot flue gas travels through a bank of tubes where
the heat is transferred to the water that surrounds the tube
bundle. This is known as a “fire tube” design.
 This boiler design is equipped with an automated mechanical
cleaning system that periodically removes ash build-up from the
tubes. This is done online to avoid interruptions in the heating
process.

7. ENERGY ANALYSIS

8. CONCLUSION
 environmental friendly system of heat generation.
No wastage of fuels like diesel
 additional energy savings in a building.
Lower emissions of co2
Initial cost of execution is high.
Can be installed only in places abundant with biomass sources

9. GEOTHERMAL ENERGY RESOURCE

11. GALT HOUSE EAST HOTEL AND
WATERFRONT OFFICE BUILDINGS
Location: Louisville, Kentucky
Tag: largest Geothermal Heating and
cooling system in the US
Project description: 4,500 tons
Geothermal Heat Power system
67 MM btu/hour heating

12. Heating and air conditioning is provided for 750 square foot hotel rooms, 1800 square foot
apartments, square feet of meeting rooms, ballroom and public space, and square feet of office
building totalling 1,740,000 square feet.
The system can extract 2800 gallons per minute of ground water from four wells at and can
either remove energy from the well water for heating or add heat to the well water from the air
conditioning. The water is then discharged into a storm water system.
 Construction and operation costs are extremely low compared to other systems commonly
installed in a similar complex.

13. SYSTEM DESIGN
For the Galt House East Hotel, ground water at 58'F is pumped
into a 140,000 gallon reservoir under the mechanical room.
Water from the reservoir is circulated through plate/ frame heat
exchangers. This separates the ground water from closed loop
circulation systems in the buildings.
The closed loops are connected to water source heat pumps
which can absorb heat from the loop water or reject heat into the
loop water, depending on the requirement of that space. Any
space can have heating or cooling at any time.
During spring and fall, the use of thermal storage allows the
controls to shut down the well pumps (sometimes for as long as a
week). The Btu's stored in the reservoir during the day from air-
conditioning can be used to heat the building at night

14. The pumps normally operate at 25% to30% of full load current due to water regulating valves
and variable frequency drives on the circulating pumps. With 375hp pumps (three- 100hp
pumps and one-75hp pump) running at70% less than full load, savings are $111,502 per year.
Chemical emissions from cooling tower bleed and boiler blow down also are eliminated by the
geothermal heat pump system
Due to the reduction in power required, principle emissions from the power station were
reduced by 7,870,0001b per year of COr; 44,000 Ib per year of SOr; 33,000 lb per year of NO,;
and 5,500 lb per year particulate.
EVALUATION STATISTICS

15. Comparative test results
between Galt east hotel
with the geothermal
heating and cooling and
Galt hotel with
conventional heating
and cooling systems