Dr. Chan Seung Park’s proposal for the Carbon Emission Reduction from the Intelligent Operation of Campus Steam Plant with Natural Gas Fuel Quality Sensor (Gas Quality Sensor) Project was ranked top by the UC Global Climate Leadership Council (GCLC) leadership for funding of research proposals submitted through the UC Carbon Neutrality Initiative’s Applied Research Working Group (ARWG). Of twenty total Letter of Intent (LOI) proposals submitted across all pillars, ten were to the research pillar (ARWG). The ARWG Co-Chairs reviewed the ten LOIs and invited six proposal teams to submit full proposals to the ARWG. Of these six full proposals reviewed by the ARWG, two were successfully awarded.

Dr. Park along with co-PIs Dr. Hamid Nazaripouya and Dr. Hossein Akhavan Hejazi were approved for $125k to conduct their project over the next year. The opportunity is to demonstrate the efficient and cost effective operation of the steam plant using an intelligent and closed-loop control of combustion system based on the UC developed fuel quality sensor signal. The goals of the project are to develop and demonstrate the intelligent operation of campus steam plant based on the real-time fuel quality sensor, more specifically Wobbe Index(WI) sensor, to increase the fuel efficiency and to decrease the GHG emission.