Senior Design Team 517: Making the MagLab Greener

Abstract

The Innovation Park houses world record holding magnets within the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, commonly referred to as the MagLab. These magnets produce an enormous amount of heat and require an equally high amount of energy to cool. This makes the MagLab’s carbon footprint extremely large. Trane is the HVAC company that is responsible for cooling the MagLab. Team 517 will help Trane redesign the cooling system at the MagLab to lower the energy consumption and carbon footprint of the Innovation Park.

This team will accomplish this goal with two methods: cooling the magnets and sharing the MagLab’s cooling ability. Currently the magnets are cooled under the assumption they operate at full power. This is not the case. The magnets often use less power to run. The team will design a system that cools the magnets based on the percentage of power used. This will ensure the MagLab does not waste energy by overcooling a magnet; and the less energy the MagLab consumes, the lower its carbon footprint. When the magnets are not in use, the MagLab has a vast cooling potential sitting idly. The second way the team will reduce carbon emissions is using the MagLab’s idle cooling ability by sharing it with the rest of Innovation Park. A new building is coming to the park, and it will rely on the MagLab’s cooling capability for its air-conditioning. This team will design a way to transport the chilled water in the MagLab to the new building two hundred yards away. By relying on the MagLab’s chilling ability, the new building will consume far less energy. Running one system will use less energy than two, and the overall energy consumption of the Innovation Park will decrease thus lowering its carbon footprint.