Central Plant Archives - CJL Engineering

Carnegie Museum of Natural History

Carnegie Museum of Natural History

The 120-year-old Carnegie Museum of Natural History, a National Historic Landmark Building in the heart of Pittsburgh’s Oakland section, housed an outdated and inefficient chilled water system capable of failure at any time. CJL Engineering was hired to conduct a Heating/Cooling Plant Energy Master Plan to develop an approach for the upgrade of the Chilled Water System. CJL provided a replacement design for the two 39 year-old chillers using new energy efficient equipment, and later did the commissioning on this facility.
Energy Center Pittsburgh – Uptown
Energy Center Pittsburgh – Uptown
This new plant is designed to serve the chilled water, steam and emergency power requirements of UPMC Mercy Hospital. CJL Engineering’s design solutions included:

Chilled Water – 5500 tons operating capacity with another 2750 tons of stand-by capacity.

Steam – 100,000 LBS / HR operating capacity with another 50,000 lbs / HR of stand-by capacity. Steam pressure is at 150 PSIG

Emergency Generators – 5 MW operating capacity with another 2.5 MW of stand-by capacity.

Design of the chilled water lines sizes for 30-inch HDPE (high density polyethylene) to exiting plant and 24-inch HDPE after the split.

Experience with the Energy Center Pittsburgh – Uptown project includes underground vaults associated with the steam installation as well. Vaults included both precast and poured in place installations.

The Energy Center Pittsburgh – Uptown project was a design-build effort with collaboration coordination and review with all stakeholders. Piping and conduit placement review and coordination continued throughout construction to assure that design objectives were met while avoiding underground obstacles, including those which had not been detected by earlier discovery methods. This effort served the project very well, particularly at the massively congested crossings of Forbes and Fifth Avenues.
Akron Thermal District Chiller

Akron Thermal District Chiller

Akron Thermal, the district energy provider for the City of Akron, Ohio, located in center-city Akron, a new 1,000-Ton steam absorption chiller, and a 1,000-Ton cooling tower, doubling the city’s chilling capacity. CJL’s Structural Engineering Design included new concrete floor and building shell expansion to support the new chiller, associated pumps and controls. Increased electrical capacity supports the new chiller pumps and cooling tower fan motors.
University of Pittsburgh – Upper Campus – Chilled Water Plant and Hi-Pressure Steam

University of Pittsburgh – Upper Campus – Chilled Water Plant and Hi-Pressure Steam

CJL Engineering provided the mechanical and electrical engineering design for the 5,100-ton upper campus chilled water plant for the University of Pittsburgh. The massive 7,000 sq. ft. plant is 30 feet high, and houses three 900-ton and two 1200-ton chillers.

A primary, secondary pumping system utilizes a water pump for each chiller, and three secondary pumps with variable speed drives. The total capacity of the pumping system is 8,160 gpm designed for a 15 degree F. delta T.
Underground 20” chilled water piping, along with 12” high-pressure steam, 6” pump discharge, and 2” high-pressure return, were installed in a common 10’ side trench. The steam system consisted of over 1,000 ft. of high-pressure and six steam vaults.