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Washington State University Innovation for Sustainable Energy

Meeting Minutes 2017-6-20

Meeting start time: 2:00 pm

Members Present: Jose Ramos, Sage Pratt, Aaron Clark, Mathew Hunt, Eli Shoemake

 

Update on Gas-Booster Progress:

  • Haskel AGD-15 gas booster is operational.
  • Jose has put in a work order for pressure relief for the booster.

Social Media Progress:

  • Aaron has set-up both the Twitter and Facebook pages for ISE
  • The Lentil Festival requires paying a $175 fee and filling out a registration form
  1. Jake suggested going to John Schnieder to look at club funding to see if that cost can be covered through WSU.
  2. Jake also suggested speaking with Jacob Chen – a chef from food services that may be able to help us with Food permits.

Liquefier Updates:

  • Threaded Die is on order, once it has arrived, VCR fittings will get threaded.
  • TIG welded new VCR fitting for a better sealed connection to the VT.

 

What’s next?

  • Install VT into liquefier.
  • Install pressure relief on the gas booster.
  • Conduct testing and continue with community outreach.

Meeting Minutes 2017-6-15

Meeting start time: 2:00 pm

Members Present: Jose Ramos, James Mitalas, Aaron Clark, Mathew Hunt, Eli Shoemake

  • Discussed community outreach events:
  • Setting up a booth at the Palouse Lentil Festival where we could give out ice-cream, flyers and stickers to people.
  • Setting up a booth at the Voiland College day of welcome where we’d serve LN2 ice-cream as well as recruit.
    • This could include having a spin wheel to earn stickers or other prizes.
    • To enter or get ice cream you’d have to show us you’ve liked us on either Facebook, Twitter or Snapchat.
  • Aaron is working towards building out our social media presence. That includes Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat.
  • We are considering getting in contact with the Alumni organization to establish a connection there as well as with other organizations.

 

Technical Updates:

  • It has been determined that the Haskel AGD-15 gas booster is operational and that all we need is the proper pressure relief for it.
  • Ran through plumbing of the system with Eli, making through connections are correct.

Meeting Notes 2017-6-8

Meeting start time: 3:00 pm

Members/Grad Students/Mentors Present: Eli, James, Mathew, Sage

  • Began assembly the initial nitrogen experiment
  1. Brazed together VCR fittings with SS tubing
  2. Assembled cross for various measurements to be attached to the nitrogen dewar
  3. Sealed 3 thermocouples to a pass-through plug using a two-part epoxy (J-B Weld)
  4. Installed nitrogen gas bottle into storage container for safe experimentation
  5. Face VCR fitting for VT.

Meeting Notes 2017-6-6

Meeting start time: 3:00 pm

Members/Grad Students/Mentors Present: Eli, James, Jose, Mathew, Sage

  • Discussed and decided on how much LH2 we’d like to be able to produce for the final design
  1. Considered NFPA Documentation
  2. To comply w/ NFPA, decided that liquefying 150 L of H2 max per day was acceptable.
  3. Corresponds to 88.54 SLM total flow throughout the system
  4. Ideally wanting 40% of the total flow coming out of cold side.
  5. Corresponds to 885.4 L/min inlet flow.
  • Eli started design documentation to record future needs & updates.
  • Worked through safety documentation for initial testing.
  1. Got oriented with documentation
  2. Modified for the needs of ISE.
  3. Formatted so changes can be made as further iterations are made.

Meeting Notes 2017-5-30

Meeting start time: 3:30 pm

Members/Grad Students/Mentors Present: Jake, Eli, Kevin, Mathew, Jose, Aaron, Sage.

 

  • Today’s meeting started with a presentation of the Linde-Hampson cycle, the basic cycle that the LN2 test runs off of. The point of the presentation was to educate all members on the actual system process that is taking place and how it moves from point A to B.
  • It was explained to Jake that our system would be bare bones, so he asked us a few questions including: have we taken into account the fact that when venting from the gas bottle, both temperature and pressure in the gas bottle will drop as well. This means that our test will not be based on steady-state, but transient.
  • Jake ran through the thermodynamics of the gas bottle venting ( no picture was taken at the time, one will be added later ) and it was found that our transient measurements would for the enthalpy term.
  • Then we ran through with Jake what we plan on doing next for testing. We set a deadline by the end of the week next week to begin liquefying Nitrogen!!!!!!!!
  • Then with the help of Eli, the team cleaned and seal the VT fully, including a small indium extrusion demo.
  • Testing to measure volumetric flow rate from a gas line will be taken tomorrow (5/31/2017)

 

 

What’s left for initial testing:

  • Stainless steel tubing and a 1/16th die are on order for the VCR connection into the VT.
  • Modifications geometry wise must be made in the recuperator so that the VT will fit.
  • Safety paperwork must still be written
  • Waiting to hear on the progress from the gas booster team.

Meeting Notes 2016-09-22

Further meeting times are inconclusive, so far.

Not officially set yet: Most popular meeting option times: Tuesday 7-8pm, Monday 4-5pm (should only be 15 minutes or so, discuss what you got done, what might be improvable). May be too late, especially for a standup meeting.

Note: We will continue meeting on Thursdays 3-4. We will add additional meeting times as needed.

Everybody needs to make sure they get on slack if they aren’t already (wsuise.slack.com)

Introductions, why they are here, what they want to get out of this, what they want to do.
Several CE, ChemE, BioChem, ME’s, others. A good mix! Most are interested in gaining real-life experience and in helping the environment. If we get enough CE’s we have some major projects that could be useful in designing larger refueling stations and facilities.

Japan is going towards hydrogen in vehicle fuel (as a long-term view).

Several possible groups:
• Purification and feedstock (mostly chemical)
• High pressure storage and fluids
• Structural, code, sitings (mostly civil)
• Liquefaction and testing?

Separated into preferred groups and performed tasks:
1. Reintroduced ourselves
2. Discussed skills we have (anything that might be relevant)
3. Came up with key questions about project we wanted answered
4. Possible group accomplishments
(Post these to slack, feel free to meet outside of lab anytime)

Meeting Notes 2016-09-15

INTRODUCTIONS

  • Jimmy is interested in renewable energy, has engineering experience with Toyota.
  • Nathan interested in renewable energy. Here to learn more about the fueling station.
  • Conrad interested in working with renewable energy.
  • Samantha worked on algae bio diesel, interested in learning about H2 bio fuel.
  • Casey H2 fuel is the reason she switched to CHEM E
  • Logan wishes to work with renewable energy such as hydrogen. “It’s the direction of the future”.
  • Dylan interested in working with Hydrogen in the future
  • Brandon Very interested in renewable energy and Hydrogen. Family is in that business.
  • Kyle Interested in green infrastructure.
  • Stephen Likes energy and looks forward to creating new methods for efficient energy use.
  • Crowdfunding will go live by October 15th

*Video Plays*

– Eli begins by answering the question: “What are you guys doing? And what has been done so far?”, thus giving the group an idea of what we are doing.

– Demonstration of the vortex tube concept at the core of the liquefier.

– Walkthrough of ISE website. We directed them to the design tab so that they may familiarize themselves with each individual project

– Tour of the fueling station, including current progress.

– Introduction to Slack

– Standup meetings will be conducted twice a week. Doodle schedule to be released soon through email.

BY NEXT MEETING:

  • Sign up for Slack
  • Fill out the Doodle poll for the second standup meeting
  • Look at the website and try to come up with a project, experience, or design you would like to work on to help complete the station. Send this to Eli through email or Slack, and we’ll form teams next meeting.

NEXT MEETING THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22 at 3 PM

 

 

Meeting Notes 2016-07-27

Updates from:

Will – Made a new parts list since the bayonet/vacuum insulated fitting is delayed. This new parts list will allow us to start testing with a less efficient connection before the vacuum insulated line gets in. The new heat exchanger is finished, plan on cleaning it with methanol or isopropyl alchohol followed by acetone. We have a 0.1″ indium die that we can use for seals. The old purifier setup from 416 is pressure rated to be able to test with. He has calculated a 1 meter heat exchanger length for the water cooled HE. Viscojet does not want to work with us to get their product to use as a JT valve. We can make a valve ourselves or get a small, precise needle valve to be able to use.

TO DO: Polish new heat exchanger, Cut existing helical coils to be useable for the water bath HE. Look at getting a needle valve to use as a JT.

Greg – Parts have been found for pressure testing of the Haskel compressors, we need one short length of 1/4 stainless pipe pressure rated to at least 1400 psig to be able to test.

TO DO: Order the 1/4 stainless pipe section

Dustin – Presentation on the NFPA and WAC codes and how the Quonset Hut site meets codes and standards. NFPA codes are met with the siting locations, WACs will require minor modifications – movement of the compressor in TFRB. Fire hazard signs will need to be posted – no smoking signs, etc. Location options are discussed, and a location is proposed.

TO DO: Adjust the image to move to the new location. Update some of the slides with necessary modification that will need to be made. Update the slide deck to make the presentation Relevent, Credible, and Efficient. Add the coal yard as a secondary backup site.

Jose – Working on trying to contact Stirling Cryo, but having issues. Still working on getting CAD layouts of the container worked out.

TO DO: Work to make a CAD mockup of the vacuum insulated line that can be easily adjustable so we’re ready to send it off when we get the final information.

Sam – Working on the power requirements for the fans – it seems the the power difference between the half speed and full speed of the fans is not very much, so it will make the most sense to continue with just full speed fans. He has a meeting with facilities to talk about wiring and the needs of getting alll of the electrical set up for the station. Ideally initial power should be able to be obtained by just plugging into one of our high voltage outlets.

TO DO: Talk with the facilities guy tomorrow morning.

Meeting Notes 2016-07-06

Meeting Starts 13:09

Jake updates about his week and a half away. He was at a conference on Engineering Education in New Orleans.

4th of July weekend updates

Greg’s updates:

Conference room fan is working – it was rattling initally, but is now shimmed to not make sound.

The newer gas booster was hooked up and tested, and was moving, pumping air. The next test would be to see if the gas stall pressure is working correctly.

The older gas booster will need work, still waiting on information from Haskel about refurbishment.

TO DO: Friday – Get a major repair kit for the gas booster figured out, either from Haskel or by searching for it online. Get PO for any other tools we need as well.

Will’s updates:

HX 2 is being rebuilt, HX 1 is being re-soldered in the shop.

Pressure drop of 2 psi with hydrogen through both heat exchangers

Working on calculating out the lengths required for heat exchanger loops in the water baths. Still need to get pressure drops for these. Viscojet is still not on the same page of what requirements we need. Sent a follow up email to Jaime at ACE about the quote he was supposed to get for us to see where he’s at in the process.

TO DO: Call Viscojet to try to clarify our needs. Call Jaime if he doesn’t respond to see where in the process our quote is at.

Jose updates:

Technifab is interested in the project and would like to know more. Mike has emailed with updates and offering assistance. When we know the position of the precooler, we can do a fixed tube. Flex tube is looking more difficult. We should set up a meeting with Technifab to talk about the lines and feedthrough.

TO DO: Set up a meeting with Technifab and CC Jake on the email. Talk to Mike to get assistance on the project. Use the CAD model to look at where the line needs to run to fit our precooling options.

Dustin updates:

Looking at the Quanza hut site -> There looks to be enough setoff distance between the center of the site and the distances required by code. The issue is that the stepped construction on the hill will make the site more difficult. Order form for ACE supplies to pick up is printed and ready to submit.

TO DO: Look at WACs to ensure that the station siting will also meet Washington state codes. Create a slide documenting the requirements of the code and how the site will comply with them.

Sam updates:

Has been looking through all of the NFPA code for electrical wiring to try to come up with what requirments there are on creating the electrical circuit. He wants to talk to an electricitian to go over the design before creating an order.

TO DO: Talk to Michael Wood about what the 316 team did and who they talked to at WSU for electrical advice.

TEAM TO DO: Create global BOM with all purchased parts and costs.

Next Thursday ITM will likely come visit to see the tech. We need to make sure that the space stays clean and organized for them to see when they visit.

Meeting Notes 2016-06-22

Meeting starts 13:02

Greg starts off updates

We can use the single stage unit to get pressure from 70 to 1400 psi. 70 psi is too high of pressure for the dewar, we’ll have to drop to 50 psi.

The flow rate is 0.15 SCFM at this pumping pressure, an order of magnitude less than what we are currently running.

By using both Haskel pumps, we can get up to the flow rate we want. Both in series would be much higher flowrate of air – about 100 scfm. This might be an issue with the air compressor.

Flow measurements can be done with new Sierra flowmeters.

Double acting Haskel pump needs a refurbish kit. Single acting is likely fine, but may need seals replaced.

Jose is next

Typed up a failure mode analysis, drafted the procedure for testing in our expected tests.

Emailed quite a few companies about bayonet type pass thoughs and got several nos, but a few interested. Prentax has not responded yet, might try contacting again. Technifab hasn’t said no, but are cautious.

Don’t know about vacuum jacketed lines – most are only rated 100 – 250 psi

We could make our own line, and either put it in vacuum or coat in Cryogel. This would be the simple, cheap route.

Send Jake a note about the bayonet design and coding to model heat transfer.

Remind Jake to talk to UW Madison about how they transfer out of their liquefier

Sage is next

Working on how to bolt down the gas bottle rack to the container per CFR codes. Use standards to calculate bolt requirements. Look at locking nut washer combiniations to make sure that the bolts stay tight.

Dustin

Dustin is meeting with Trip to look at the facilities we may be putting the station at 2:30. He’s going to make sure to let him know we are just reviewing possible sites for permanent locations of the station. Dustin has also begun looking at locations in Longview

Sam

Sam has a circuit diagram for how to set up the fan controls. He decided that the roughly $40 a month saved by not running active fans constanly doesn’t save enough money to make up for the additional expense of a velocity measurement system.