A project to retrofit a biomass-fired boiler at the University of Iowa’s (UI’s) Oakdale Research Park campus, in Coralville, Iowa, received the 2013 Grand Place Award in the Energy Production category of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC) Excellence Awards.

The project was com pleted in 2011 under the leadership of architectural and engineering firm Shive-Hattery, working with Global Energy Solutions, which represented US-based boiler and welding company Hurst Boiler and UI associate director of utilities and energy management Ferman Milster.

The awards recognise outstanding projects that exhibit innovation and technical advances in the engineering profession, projects that have taken into account complexity and social and eco- nomic considerations, and projects that show an ability to meet or exceed project requirements.

As an integral part of UI’s green energy initiative, which seeks to have 40% of its energy needs met with renewable resources by the end of 2020, the Hurst biomass boiler replaced the campus’s existing natural gas boiler. Because the project was a retrofit, Hurst had to custom-design the biomass boiler solution to fit into an existing structure.

Hurst Boiler chief engineer Bruce Coffee states that the UI project required creative solutions, including modification to work around space constraints and fixed barriers. Components such as boiler legs, breeching (ductwork), piping and the fly-ash collector chute were like “puzzle pieces that needed to be modified and placed to fit”.

The biomass boiler solution is able to combust hundreds of different fuels, allowing the UI campus to burn local fuels, such as wood chips and oat hulls, while keeping fossil fuels in place as a backup.

The system is controlled with the Hurst Biomaster, an intuitive dashboard-driven control and monitoring system for boiler and peripheral equipment.

Meanwhile, the company announced the introduction of two new products, the Thermo-Master and the Stack-Master, which are the latest, patent-pending, engineered product advances made by Hurst.

The products were launched during the air conditioning, heating and refrigeration trade fair AHR Expo 2014, which took place in New York, US.

The devices aid in lowering stack temperatures using make-up feedwater and exhaust gases to increase overall boiler efficiency. The company employs a water-to-water counterflow design to complete the process.

The optional counterflow devices are factory-installed and require no external support; therefore, they do not require installation and there are no labour costs that typical external economisers require.

Fuel-to-steam efficiencies can be increased by up to 5%, claims Hurst.

The company offers these features on its line of Scotch Marine counterflow series boilers.