The University of Iowa Combined Heat and Power Plant (CHP) project, located on the UI Research Park Campus, recently won a National Recognition Award for engineering excellence from the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC). Stanley Consultants Inc., of Muscatine, designed the project.

The CHP integrates multiple utility systems to provide the UI Research Park campus with heating, chilled water, and electricity. Two 1.4-megawatt gas-fired generators, which can burn either natural gas or landfill biogas, are equipped with a waste heat recovery system for heating campus facilities. An adjacent chilled water plant contains a high-efficiency centrifugal chiller that distributes chilled water through an underground pipe network to campus buildings for cooling. The CHP provides the infrastructure to support continued growth at the Research Park while cutting emissions and costs.

The project is among 147 engineering projects from throughout the nation that are being recognized by ACEC as preeminent engineering achievements for 2011. Stanley Consultants, Inc. will be accepting the award on behalf of their company and the UI at the ACEC’s Engineering Excellence Awards Gala to be held on April 17 in Washington, D.C.

The CHP is a component of UI’s Oakdale Renewable Energy Plant and part of an overall goal to operate the UI Research Park on 100 percent renewable energy.

For more information on the Oakdale Renewable Energy Plant, visit: www.facilities.uiowa.edu/uem/renewable-energy/.