Lehigh Greenhouse Gas Inventory 

By Summer Intern Laura Deutsch

 

In order to effectively relay what I have done, the problems I have encountered, and the people I had to contact I will list the major components of the Greenhouse Gas Inventory (GHG) on this webpage.

 

Powerhouse

My first stop on the road to completing the GHG was at the Powerhouse.  Inside I met with Kent Hayhurst.  Kent is the Lead Stationary Engineer for Facilities Services/Central Heating & Refrigeration.  Kent was very nice and extremely helpful.  After our initial meeting, Kent said he would build an excel outline for me with all the necessary information he could provide. 

 

Some Important Information that Kent and I discussed:

Kent told me that the Powerhouse does not keep track of the chilled water allotted to the different buildings.  In the morning, most buildings demand full cooling and then as the buildings begin to cool, the Powerhouse starts to close the valves.  One aspect of the GHG is concerned with steam loss.  Kent said that when steam is lost in transit from Powerhouse to a Lehigh building, Kent and his team will open a valve under the plant which allows new city water to come through.  Kent mentioned that this valve will be open and close periodically throughout the day.

*1lb of steam lost= 1lb of new city water

 

Problems:

Kent told me that they do not track the amount of steam that is pumped to each building.  He said that only four buildings are metered for steam, and yet the department does not keep track of the meters.

 

Additional Questions to Ask in the Future:

- How many BTUs of fuel are converted into steam?

- Does the Powerhouse remove minerals/oxygen from the water?

- What does Kent think of the 30% makeup water?

- What is the normal % makeup water?

- Why does this process use such a large quanity of water?

 

Helpful Websites:

1. Clayton Industries

- Provides information about Boiler Efficiencies, Steaming Rates, Boiler Blowdown Considerations, and definitions for those technical terms.

2.  Energy Conversion Table

3.  Rovisys

- Article titled, "Improve Boiler Control and Steam Generation Efficiency"

 

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Transportation

On June 21st, I met with Christopher Christian, the Director of Parking Services.  Chris's office is located on the Goodman Campus past Stabler Arena and near the baseball fields.  Chris was, once again, a very helpful resource.  He went out of his way to contact me so that we could set up a time to meet and discuss the information that I needed. 

 

Important Information:

Fuel-

Chris informed me that Lehigh built their own gas station (located on the Goodman Campus) in 1980 and in 1988, the campus vehicles switched from regular to unleaded fuel.  Chris also said that we do have a very small fleet of golf carts, which do run on Electric power with a 12-volt battery.  He said, however, that this fleet is very small and no data has been captured as the results would not be meaningful.  In addition, Chris mentioned that as far as Natural Gas is concerned, he does not want Lehigh to use this form of fuel.  Between the large price tag (a Natural Gas shuttle costs about $200,000 more than diesel) and the operational challenges between Lehigh and the Lanta bus system, he said switching to Natural Gas would not be a worthy investment.

Travel-

When I asked Chris about the Travel component of the GHG, he expressed that keeping track of faculty, staff, and student travel would be a very difficult and overwhelming task.  He said that the university could only guess how many miles worth of traveling happens in each year, but did also mention that the university has tried to perform a study.  Chris noted that it would be hard to keep track of the miles since the traveling faculty members charge everything to their own accounts and are later reimbursed upon return.  As far as student travel is concerned, the university does not keep track of those figures either.  Chris told me that Lehigh did consider buying their own chartered buses, which cost about $525,000. 

*Chris also provided me with data concerning the diesel fuel consumption in gallons and also the university vehicles make and models.

 

Problems:

As I have already mentioned, one problem that Chris and I discussed was the lack of information regarding faculty, staff, and student travel.  Also, Chris seemed hesitant when asked about other sources of fuel, including biodiesel.  He mentioned that he had considered the switch from diesel to biodiesel, but has some issues and concerns regarding the alternative fuel source. 

 

Additional Questions to Ask in the Future:

- Why does the university run the large shuttle buses around campus during the summer months?  Can't they use the smaller vans to shuttle the students?

- What does Christian think of the share-car or share-bike program?

- Should parking permit prices increase in order to encourage students to leave their cars at home?

- Should Lehigh install more bike racks?

- Would it be possible to provide some incentive to those students who drive hybrids or ride their bikes?

 

Helpful Websites:

1. Harvard's Environmentally-friendly Transportation Efforts

2. Biodiesel Proposal for Shuttle Buses at MIT

- mtvU and GE Ecomagination Challenge

3. Pacific Union College's Creative Ideas for Transportation

- Shuttle Bus information is located towards the middle of the page, under the heading- Traffic & Transportation

 

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Facilities

Regarding the Facilities Department, I contacted Gary Falasca, the Director of Facilities.  I contacted him through email and informed him of all the information I would need for the GFG Inventory.  Since the Facilities Department is deals with a variety of responsibilities (waste, electricity, steam, refrigerants, the buildings, etc.), Falasca said it would be best to set up a meeting to discuss all of the categories in person instead of just through email.  About a week later, I met with Falasca and Mike Trzesniowski, who is the Associate Director Utilities.

 

Important Information Discussed at Meeting:

Concerning the GHG Inventory Excel worksheet, the two directors said that we do not concern ourselves with most of the services the GHG Inventory asks for.  For instance, in the excel input section, under the heading "Solid Waste" and within the category "Incinerated Waste (waste to energy plant) not used for school power," the Facilities department informed me that we do not use a Mass Burn Incinerator, nor do we use a Refuse Devired Fuel (RDF) Incinerator.  Under the same heading, we do not have Landfilled Waste with no CH4 Recovery, Landfilled Waste with CH4 Recovery and Flaring, or Landfilled Waste with CH4 Recovery and Electric Generation.  The two men also told me that we do not use the chemicals listed under the heading "Refrigeration and Other Chemicals"  Those Chemicals include HFC-134a, HFC-404a, HCFC-22, HCFC-235da2, or HG-10.  The directors, however, were able to provide me with the gas and oil information from 2000-2006

 

Problems:

The information that they did provide me was not set up in the Fiscal Year calendar (July- June), but rather listed as a regular year, January- December. 

 

Additional Questions to Ask in the Future:

- Why don't they log their data using the Fiscal Year calendar since most other Lehigh departments use this feature.

- What is their opinion on the fact that a lot of departments don't keep track of records (i.e. Brickman) and don't effectively meter the buildings (i.e. Powerhouse)

- Do they see any environmentally-friendly alternatives being implemented in the near future? (motion sensor lighting, etc.)

- What service requires the most energy (electricity, heating & cooling, groundskeeping) ?

 

Helpful Websites:

1. Facilities Contact Directory

 

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Brickman

Brickman does all the landscaping and groundskeeping at Lehigh.  Their on-campus location is on the Goodman Campus, behind all of the sports facilities.  The day that I visted Brickman was the day I scheduled my meeting with Transportation.  I arrived early at Transportation and the Director wasn't in the office yet, so I figured I would check out the Brickman offices.  At the office Dan Andrus, the person in charge of the Brickman at Lehigh operations, met with me.

 

Important Information Discussed at Meeting:

Andrus informed me that his office does not keep track of the amount of fertilizer that is used on the campus grounds.  One positive move, he said, was that the company has begun to use Nature Safe's organic fertilizer.  Once again, however, he did not have the amount

 

Problems:

The biggest problem is that the company does not keep track of how much fertilizer is used on the grounds. 

 

Additional Questions to Ask in the Future:

- Will organic fertilizers be used more frequently than synthetic in the near future?

- Are there better practices that should be implemented with the landskeeping?  Such as with the flower rotations, the trees, etc?

 

Helpful Websites:

1. Environmentally Friendly Landscaping Practices

2. Ithaca College's Efforts

3. Macalester College

-  Students designed a project that surveyed the effects of fertilizers and other practices used on the campus grounds. 

 

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Budget:

Please contact me if you are interested in this information.

 

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Population:

I used Lehigh's website to find out the information for the faculty, staff, and student Population Data.