Northwestern University Cooling Pond

GEI is providing services to Northwestern University to develop a thermal Decision Support System (DSS) for managing temperature in a cooling pond on the Evanston, Illinois campus.

The campus is expanding and growing requiring increased capacity of a series of water chillers used to supply cold water and cool the campus buildings. Heat is generated during the chilling process. As a result, this chiller system discharges waste heat (hot water) into a lagoon that discharges into Lake Michigan.

In order to meet State of Illinois Water Quality Standards, the cooling pond must be capable of rejecting various amounts of heat before the pond water discharges into Lake Michigan. Depending on the time of year, pond discharges could violate State water quality standards if operations are not managed effectively. GEI has developed a custom-built thermal model to analyze various proposed operations and thermal loadings. From this, we can determine what operational changes need to be made to maintain pond temperatures within regulatory limits of the Illinois DEQ. GEI is working with two firms on this project; Baetis Environmental and AEI Affiliated Engineers, experts in environmental permitting, and experts in piping, HVAC, and mechanical engineering of educational and scientific campuses, respectively. GEI is proposing a detailed sensory and monitoring system to automate control and management of the pond thermal regime after the initial permits are obtained.