Novel cooling and heating win US defence deals

USA: The US defence department’s Defense Innovation Unit (DIU) has awarded contracts to three prototype novel air conditioning and heat pump technologies to reduce energy consumption at military bases.

The Defense Innovation Unit, informally dubbed the Pentagon’s Innovation Experiment, was founded in 2015 to help the US military make faster use of emerging commercial technologies.

Competitively selected out of a pool of 40 contenders, the selected companies – GTI Energy Inc, Blue Fronter LLC, and Intellihot LLC – will install and demonstrate the technologies in buildings on Department of Defense (DoD) bases. 

The goal of the effort is to reduce installation energy consumption for heating and cooling needs, enabling DoD bases to reduce their carbon footprint and GHG emissions and counter the approximately $4bn annual energy bill.

GTI Energy, based in Des Plaines, Illinois, is installing and monitoring Lync’s Aegis A air-to-water CO2 heat pumps for domestic hot water use in barracks at Fort Gregg-Adams in Prince George County, Virginia, and Fort Moore in Columbus, Georgia. 

GTI will also install and monitor the performance of four Daikin dual-fuel rooftop hybrid units to be installed in the Applied Instruction Hanger building at Fort Gregg-Adams. 

Blue Frontier, based in Boca Raton, Florida, is installing its liquid desiccant-enhanced dedicated outdoor air system (LD-DOAS) in the commissary/community spouses club at Fort Moore and a bowling alley in Westover Air Reserve Base in Massachusetts. 

Described as the world’s first packaged liquid desiccant system, the LD-DOAS is designed with sustainability in mind, improving indoor air quality through increased ventilation with precise dehumidification. Boasting moisture removal efficiency at more than three times the proposed ASHRAE standard, it uses liquid desiccant to dehumidify and deliver 100% outdoor air at 55°F dew point and room neutral temperature without reheat. 

Intellihot, based in Galesburg, Illinois, is providing a tankless heat pump water heater to the base recreation building at the Westover Air Reserve Base in Massachusetts. The company’s iE1 Electron series employs CO2 refrigerant and features a specially-designed thermal battery. The units has a claimed COP of 4.9.

With around 300,000 buildings on more than 500 bases across diverse climate zones within its scope, the DoD requires reliable access to hot water, heating, and cooling systems. It spends approximately $4bn annually on facility energy consumption, of which 95% is allocated for essential services including lighting, heating, cooling systems for buildings, and provision of hot water for personnel needs.

These facilities include more than 150,000 space heating and cooling units alongside 70,000 water heaters, representing 33% of the department’s total infrastructure energy consumption DoD space and water heating operations can contribute substantially, up to more than 45% of a building’s overall energy consumption.