Thermal Fluid and Energy Systems

The Advanced Multiscale Building Energy Research (AMBER) Lab consists of a 16 x 18 x 12 ft³ state-of-the-art environmental chamber with its own air handling unit (AHU) that supplies filtered and conditioned air that can be used for future laboratory validations. The chamber serves as a piece of equipment that provides specific environmental conditions necessary for ventilation experiments, indoor air quality assessments, thermal performance of wall assemblies, and environmental perceptions of occupants. Some of the unique characteristics of the chamber are:

• Supply airflow rate range: 50–900 cfm
• Percent of outdoor air: 0–100 %
• Hydronic wall system: 1.6 kW glycol wall on one 18-ft walls with its own dedicated cooling and heating system
• Control system: able to communicate with MATLAB and EnergyPlus via Modbus RTU communication
• Chamber: controlled with a 6-core workstation
• Seven-speed ceiling fan: bidirectional flow (up and down) and remote control

The chamber is equipped with laboratory-rated sensors to measure chamber air temperature, relative humidity, air-flow rate, and the chamber wall surface temperature. Chamber control system can be constant, or one can dynamically change these variables following a programmed profile or numerical calculations. The chamber also has separate data acquisition (DAQ) for collecting all data related to heat flux and temperature measurements. The AMBER Lab has more than 50 thermistors, 8 hot-sphere omnidirectional anemometers, 4 heat flux meters, 2 infrared temperature sensors, 1 infrared camera that can be controlled remotely, and 8+ plug load meters.

Contact: Dr. Paulo Tabares-Velasco (tabares@mines.edu)
Website: amber.mines.edu/lab

The Colorado Fuel Cell Center (CFCC) develops electrochemical devices to address our nation’s needs in electricity generation and energy storage. Batteries, fuel cells, electrolyzers and membrane reactors are all active topics of research and development. The CFCC has equipment and capabilities in the following areas (see cfcc.mines.edu/capabilities for complete details and specifications).

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC)

• SOFC component fabrication
• SOFC testing and characterization
• Separated-anode reactor
• System integration: kW-scale SOFCs
• Proton-conducting ceramics

Fuel Processing

• High-temperature flow reactor
• Catalytic stagnation-flow reactor

Modeling

• Detailed kinetic modeling
• SOFC modeling
• Partial oxidation and catalytic combustion modeling

CFCC researchers also use other facilities on campus, including

• Ceramics Processing Lab  
• Electron Microscopy Lab
• Mechanical Testing and Forming Lab
• Materials characterization in various labs, including X-ray diffraction, small angle X-ray scattering, nuclear magnetic resonance, and IR and Raman spectrometry

Contact: Dr. Neal Sullivan (nsulliva@mines.edu)
Website: cfcc.mines.edu

The Energy Conversion and Storage Lab provides fabrication and testing equipment for a range of systems related to clean energy and water. Lab capabilities include:

• Spin coating
• Controlled temperature and humidity chamber for device testing at precisely controlled conditions
• Controlled environment furnaces for heating under controlled gas composition
• Low-oxygen and low-humidity glove box for battery testing
• Quartz crystal microbalance with dissipation monitoring (QCM-D) for highly resolved mass uptake and viscoelastic properties
• Electrochemical test equipment for batteries and fuel cells

The Energy Conversion and Storage Lab is shared by two research groups: CORES and the Jackson Research Group. Researchers also use shared capabilities located across campus, including the Rocky Mountain Center for Environmental XPS (https://www.mines.edu/exps), the Mines Electron Microscopy Lab (https://emlab.mines.edu), and the Mines NEXUS facilities (mines.edu/nexus).

Contacts:
Dr. Steven DeCaluwe (decaluwe@mines.edu) – CORES research group (cores-research.mines.edu)
Dr. Greg Jackson (gsjackso@mines.edu) – Jackson research group

The high-pressure entrained-flow reactor is a laboratory-scale research vessel designed for coal, biomass, and solid waste gasification or combustion. The reactor can reach a temperature of 1650 °C and pressures to 50 atm. At the heart of the reactor is a 1 m long, 5 cm diameter silicon carbide heated tube. There are four heating zones along the length of the reactor providing uniform heating of the SiC tube. Nine optical ports provide access for optical diagnostics at three axial locations.

The gasifier is equipped for solid (fine particulates), liquid, or gas injection. The gasifier is capable of co-injecting steam, oxygen, and other gases with liquid or solid feedstocks. Gases are extracted from the bottom of the reactor and analyzed using gas chromatography and FTIR spectrometry. Unreacted particles are filtered from the exhaust stream for characterization and determining carbon balance. The gasifier facility also includes equipment for grinding, sieving, and injecting fine particulates.

The gasifier is ideal for characterizing carbonaceous materials for gasification, testing syngas processing technologies (e.g., hydrogen separation and sulfur removal), and studying gasification kinetics. The compact size of the reactor reduces operating costs and allows for rapid testing of diverse feedstocks over a large range of operating conditions. In addition, the reactor is suitable for demonstrating optical diagnostics in the harsh environment typical of gasification.

Contact: Dr. Jason Porter (jporter@mines.edu)
Website: modes.mines.edu/facilities/

The Optical Diagnostics Lab is a 2100 ft² space that houses laser diagnostic equipment, optical tables, burners, combustion chambers, furnaces, fuel injection pressure vessels, and pulsed and short-pulsed lasers. The lab also has several research-grade cameras and a host of optical detectors, optics, and filters as well as a variety of spectrometers, detectors, optics, and other laser sources. To support research, the lab is outfitted with chemical hoods, liquid and gas storage, a wet lab, and a controlled low-humidity and oxygen glove box. Specific equipment includes:

Analytical equipment

• Keithley picoammeter/voltage supply
• Gas chromatography
• Micro GC
• Mass spectrometer
• Potentiostat/galvanostat

High-speed data acquisition equipment

• National Instruments 8 simultaneous analog input, 2 MS/s/ch
• Gage CobraMax 4 GS/s, 2-channel, 8-bit digitizer

Optical sources

• Continuum Nd:Yag Leopard picosecond pulsed laser
• Nd:Yag nanosecond pulsed laser
• Nd:Yag CW laser
• CO₂ CW laser
• HeNe laser (IR & Vis)
• Argon-Ion laser CW
• Deuterium, halogen, tungsten, and xenon lamps.

Optical cells/accessories

• Heated liquid cell (25 °C to 200 °C)
• Variable pathlength liquid cells (KBr, CaF2, UV quartz windows)
• Long pathlength gas cells
• High-pressure optical cells
• Attenuated total reflection (ATR) stage (diamond and germanium)
• Temperature-controlled diamond ATR

Optical diagnostic capabilities

• Ballistic imaging
• Raman spectroscopy
• FTIR spectroscopy (gases and liquids)
• UV/VIS spectroscopy
• LIF, PLIF, Mie scattering for droplet size
• Spray imaging
• Laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS)
• Tunable diode laser absorption spectroscopy
• Cavity ringdown absorption spectroscopy

Contact: Dr. Jason Porter (jporter@mines.edu)
Website: modes.mines.edu/facilities/