AAAR 37th Annual Conference October 14 - October 18, 2019 Oregon Convention Center Portland, Oregon, USA
Abstract View
Micro-environmental Impact of a Proposed "Tri-gen" Facility in a Large Food Distribution Center
BO YANG, Murari Iyengar, Jeffrey Sward, K. Max Zhang, Cornell University
Abstract Number: 275 Working Group: Urban Aerosols
Abstract Megacities tend to put the wholesale markets together. A typical case is the Hunts Point Food Distribution Center (FDC) in Bronx, NY, which is $2 to 2.3 billion industry supplying 25% of produce, 35% of meat, and 45% of fish consumed in New York City. FDC has diverse energy needs, including heating for the meat market and the local heating network, cooling for the produce market, and electricity. However, the current energy supply is separated and inefficient. A combined cooling, heat, and power (CCHP) facility, also known as “tri-gen”, has been proposed at the FDC, which could efficiently generate three types of energy together. In this study, we assessed the local air quality impact at Hunts Point before and after introducing the CCHP facility. The “before” scenario included two gas-fired steam boilers (20 MMBtu/hr each) and 360 diesel-powered transport refrigeration units (TRCs). In the “after” scenario, the two gas-fired steam boilers and 50% of the TRCs were replaced by a 5.2 MW CCHP facility. The ground-level concentrations (GLCs) were predicted and analyzed by using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations. We reported significant improvement in micro-environmental air quality due to the CCHP facility, which could result in substantial occupational health benefits.