On coal-powered campus, plant reuses steam energy

Powering the IU campus is no small feat. The Utilities Division brings electricity, heat, air-conditioning and water to approximately 15 million square feet of campus building space.

“We have a lot of buildings,” Hank Hewetson, assistant vice president for Facility Operations, said. “Just like your home, a lot of buildings have electricity and natural gas. We also use coal for steam for heating. Those are the three basic sources of energy we use.”

The electricity for the IU campus is purchased from Duke Energy.

However, IU has its own system for natural gas and steam heat. The steam is made and distributed at the central heating plant located on the corner of 11th Street and Fee Lane.

“IU has had a central heating plant since the campus was built,” Hewetson said. “We’re on our fifth plant, originally constructed in 1955 and added onto throughout the years.”

Indiana coal is brought to the plant and burned to heat water in boilers, which produces the steam. The steam is distributed through pipes throughout campus. Each year, the central heating plant burns approximately 68,000 tons of coal.

Student environmental groups have petitioned to eliminate the coal system on the IU campus and instead rely on a more environmentally friendly natural gas system. However, Hewetson said that a change at this time would be impractical.

“If we were to switch from coal to natural gas, we’re talking about an increase of four to eight million dollars for the University,” Hewetson said. “Natural gas is a much more expensive fuel.”

Instead, Hewetson said the Utilities Division has focused on improving the efficiency of the current system.

After the steam is used to heat the buildings, the condensate is pumped back to the central heating plant. Because it is already hot, the recycled water does not take as much energy to turn back into steam.

“We’ve replaced pipes to get 70 and 80 percent condensate back,” Hewetson said. “We’ve seen a drop in the amount of fuel we’ve used and coal we’ve burned to create the steam.”

Other renovations include improving boiler efficiency and installing equipment to reduce emissions.