News Release

Major Upgrade Completed at Central Utility Plant for MIT

Cambridge, MA – A significant effort to increase reliability and energy efficiency was recently completed at MIT’s Central Utility Plant where steam, electricity, and chilled water are generated to support hundreds of campus buildings.

The investments into water conditioning equipment included a 500,000 pound per hour feedwater deaerator, a 420 GPM 0.5 micron condensate vortex sand filter system, a 270 GPM raw water dealkalizer system, and a 600 GPM condensate polisher system.

The system improvements are part of MIT’s multi-year, multi-million commitment to deepen the Institute’s long-standing pledge to improve sustainability, foster energy efficiency and reduce waste in all campus activities.

The deaerator is a key component to the system operation by preheating city water and removing oxygen which can cause corrosive damage to the steam system.

MIT’s deaerator installation was not an ordinary application. Typically most higher education facility power plants utilize deaerators in the range of 50,0000 to 300,000 PPH capacity; this 500,000 PPH feedwater deaerator was custom designed to fit the available space and was ultimately installed in the central utility plant (CUP) at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The large equipment coupled with complicated geometry and close tolerances presented a great challenge.

The additional water treatment equipment serves to remove particulate from the condensate system, remove alkalinity from the city water makeup, and hardness from the condensate system. This results in less system corrosion, wasted water, and chemical treatment and improved overall system efficiency. The vortex sand filter equipment was selected because of its superior performance over the existing cartridge style filters.

Project Highlights

• Green: Benefits of the project will include the reduction of waste-water, reduced water consumption, the use of less heat and chemical treatment.
• BIM Modeling: Integrating the equipment into the dense center of MIT’s 1916 vintage power plant was a significant challenge. The construction manager, BOND Brothers, performed a laser scan of the area to develop a 3D BIM model background of the existing CUP. New work was added in the model to verify the precise clearances and simulate a sequence of rigging procedures.
• Custom-designed Structural Support: The biggest structural challenge was support for the new 200,000 lb deaerator and storage tank while minimizing impacts to the existing structure and the significant amount of existing piping and equipment to remain. The steel erection was phased so that the new equipment could be crane lifted into place through a partial removal of the roof. All this was done while maintaining existing framing and catwalks which were kept in place to allow access to adjacent equipment.
• Massive Size: Physically the deaerator was so large it required incremental delivery on 2 flat bed tractor trailers from the manufacturer in Canton, Ohio to Cambridge. The storage vessel is 9’ in diameter and 28’ long. The heater vessel is 7’-6” in diameter and 17’ long
• Intense Planning: The design team included dozens of professionals . Over 40 personnel from the rigging contractor, mechanical contractor, and construction manager installed the vessels on a weekend and overnight when City street closures were permitted. The vessels were successfully lifted into place through a roof opening designed with less than 6” of clearance on any side. The preparation for this work was more than one year in duration.

Before and after tests were conducted to confirm performance. Already, tests have demonstrated complete hardness removal by the condensate polishers, nearly 50% reduction in condensate particulate by the sand filters, and complete removal of dissolved oxygen by the deaerator.

Completion Date

The project has been commissioned and became fully operational in June 2012.

Project Team

Owner: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Engineers: RMF Engineering
Construction Manager: BOND Brothers
Mechanical Contractor: Beacon Piping
Deaerator Manufacturer: Kansas City Deaerator