CATALYST AWARD: FOSSIL FUEL FREE AND RESILIENT NETWORK FOR DISTRICT HEATING AND COOLING

Catalyst Projects provide support for Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) to work towards establishing research capacity of faculty to strengthen science, technology, engineering and mathematics undergraduate education and research. It is expected that the award will further the faculty member's research capability, improve research and teaching at the institution. and involve undergraduate students in research experiences.

The project at Tennessee State University seeks to discover the mechanism of the resilience of fossil-free district heating and cooling (DHC) networks. Fossil-fuel free DHC networks have potentials to satisfy space cooling and heating demands in future smart communities.

The goal of this project is to discover the mechanism of the resilience of fossil-fuel free DHC network. The project promises to answer the following questions: (1) how to configure network topologies for better system resilience of renewable-energy fueled district networks; (2) is there a special building mechanical system more compatible to renewable-energy fueled DHC network?

The project will investigate the system resilience by developing a holistic and bi-level dynamic modeling framework. The success of the project would provide a fossil-fuel free solution for space heating and cooling demand. The potential contribution is to advance the knowledge on the resilience of using renewable energy. The project outcomes will support informed decision-making regarding clean energy power plans.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.