Dear Physics Students
Every science major should do research, but the time commitment to do an independent study or to write an undergraduate research proposal is often intimidating. Here, I am proposing a way for you to get your feet wet with applied research without committing a lot of your time. Better yet, if you are successful, you will get paid! Please find a list of opportunities below to earn cash rewards you can spend any way you like for completing short research related tasks. If something on the list interests you please email me immediately and I will reserve the task for you and provide you with additional information. Upon completing the task, Kathy will help you complete the necessary paperwork for your reward.
For any of the projects any sources you use must be reliable (e.g. peer reviewed or government etc.) the following page will be useful for finding information you will need:
http://jupiter.clarion.edu/~jpearce/lit.html
*Projects:*
National Fuel -- We are going to be demonstrating a microturbine (
http://www.microturbine.com/prodsol/products/index.asp ) in the new Science and Technology Center. However, the major challenge with combined heat and power (CHP) systems like the microturbine is finding a year round heat sink for the waste heat. If you do not use the heat it is wasted and your efficiency drops from the 80-90's to the 30's. One promising location for another CHP system is the pool - we would heat the pool and basically get free electricity.
1. Determine the variables in order to size a CHP system for the pool ($100):
1. Determine the size (area) and capacity (volume) of the Tippen pool.
2. Is there a pool cover of any kind?
3. What are its hours of operation throughout the week and the year.
4. What temperature is pool kept at – and are there any kind of temperature set backs?
5. Get the 'degree days' for Clarion and the assumed input and output temperatures of the water...and determine if any data is present - if not you may have to calculate heat loss to the building for which you willneed the CUP set points.
6. From a-e calculate the thermal requirements for the Clarion U. pool in Tippen in btu per day throughout a typical year.
2. Another application of waste heat in a distributed generation system is for refrigeration. For this project I will supply you with technical information, prices and model numbers for a number types of refrigeration/freezing systems. You will then determine their standard operating energy inputs to determine the life cycle performance of the systems. In this case we are most interested in economics so you will do an engineering economics calculation of the various systems and
determine the return on investing in the more efficient models. ($100)
3. CHP systems can be coupled with a photovoltaic (PV) source to provide continuous electric power while minimizing greenhouse gas emissions.
This is tricky however, because solar cells only work when the sun shines. Night is easy to account for – but clouds and the variations throughout the day are more challenging. We are going to be prototyping a hybrid microturbine –PV system on the new Science Center. In our system the components are smaller than the building's needs.
Analysis is needed, however, to determine if a coupled system sized
appropriately to a building could work. To figure this out do the following ($200) :
1. Determine the electrical demand in a typical household in PA throughout the day by the hour. I can provide you with the solar flux and then create a graph of the two superimposed.
2. Do the same exercise in (a) throughout the year.
3. For a PV system designed to meet the peak demand during the day and the year – determine the backup energy that would need tobe provided by the microturbine.
4. Size a microturbine to match the demand for a typical UShome.
From (c) you will know how often the microturbine must be running and at what capacity. Get its efficiency curve as a function of
load from a manufacturer and then calculate the amount of heat delivered by the microturbine on a typical day and throughout the year.
5. Finally match this btu/hour graph with the thermal needs of a typical home in Clarion.
6. Once you have completed this for Clarion – we may do the analysis for other locations to find the most promising ones and we would discuss further compensation.
Clarion Boards currently uses a standard boiler to produce the thermal energy to process the fiber board. There are almost certainly cost and efficiency advantages to utilizing combined heat and power applications but we must 'do the math'.
1. HOMER is a computer model that simplifies the task of evaluating design options for both off-grid and grid-connected power systems for remote, stand-alone, and distributed generation (DG) applications. HOMER's optimization and sensitivity analysis algorithms allow you to evaluate the economic and technical feasibility of a large number of technology options and to account for variation in technology costs and energy resource availability. http://www.nrel.gov/homer/
A good source to find lists of manufacturers for each type of CHP system ishttp://www.energy.ca.gov/distgen/equipment/equipment.html Contact actual manufacturers of the following devices and
a) determine prices and specs for their different models,
b) ask them for a HOMER model for their devices – if they do not have it, make it yourself based on their spec sheets. Assume that everything is grid connected.
Download HOMER and make a complete model for the following technologies. (This could be work
for several students working independently or in a team).
1. Reciprocating Engine ($25 up to 2)
2. Microturbine (recuperated) ($25 up to 4)
3. Combustion Turbine ($25 up to 2)
4. Stirling Engine ($25 up to 4)
5. PEM Fuel Cell ($25 up to 4)
Clarion Boards/Manamushrooms: At the Clarion Boards plant we are
considering bringing in a mushroom cultivation business to use the waste wood fiber and heat from the plant to produce another valuable product while increasing plant efficiency.
1. Clarion Boards/Manamushrooms: Determine the biological
efficiencies for exotic edible mushrooms (= no white button articles, which represent the bulk of what's out there) on different substrates mixes. List the types of mushrooms available on each substrate ($5 per substrate mix for reliable peer reviewed sources up to $50)
2. Clarion Boards/Manamushrooms: Literature review with ten articles
in pdf delivered electronically on the following:
1. Oyster (pleurotus ostreatus) mushrooms ($10)
2. King Oyster mushrooms ($10)
3. appropriate technology implementations in mushroom
cultivation ($10)
4. eco-friendly practices in mushroom cultivation ($10)
5. systems approaches in mushroom cultivation ($10)
3. Clarion Boards/Manamushrooms: Carbon Impact of mushroom
cultivation – literature search first to determine if it has been done – if not do the analysis yourself ($50)
8. Clarion Boards/Manamushrooms: For bioremediation of
pollutants - The EPA site has state-by-state data for their brownfields (nothing nationwide). Find or develop a chart of the brownfields *by contaminant* in PA first and then make an overlay of the mushroom contaminant uptake chart from Mycelium Running. I can send a copy/scan if you need it. ($50)
Last but not least – this project would make a very nice Clarion
University Undergraduate Research Grant – these grants are due on Feb 9th – this Friday! You can request up to $500 for supplies (note this is not spendingmoney – but will look great on your resume).
Another form of distributed generation can use the sun with
photovoltaics. Using as little money as possible- fabricate a light emitting diode (LED)>based solar photovoltaic lighting system using old cell phone batteriesas storage.
1. Create a spec sheet for your device including an electric circuit diagram of your apparatus, component tolerances.
2. Design a simple packaging system that could be easily used and constructed in developing countries.
3. Write a detailed description of your device and its construction (you can substitute a digital video of you doing this for the written piece)
4. Build the device (I can help you source some of the
components) and demonstrate it for the department – We have a solar simulator in the room next Kathy's office you can use to test it.
--
Joshua M. Pearce, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Physics
Coordinator of Nanotechnology and Sustainability: Science and Policy Programs
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