Dow Chemical’s new Texas Innovation Center spans 50 acres and includes five separate buildings for a total of 900,000 square feet. This new site will include two Research and Development buildings, an administration and office building, a visitor center, and an employee amenities center. HTS worked with Gowan, Inc. and Wylie Consulting Engineers to install an HVAC system that would last through the building’s expected occupancy time of 30 years without needing to be replaced.
The Central Plant of the Innovation Center was equipped with five Daikin centrifugal water-cooled chillers, six Daikin Vision air handling units, six Daikin duct mounted hot water coils, and one Daikin Destiny air handling unit, collectively totaling over 187,000 CFM. This system was designed to protect against failures, and each of the four large chillers has two compressors to allow the machine to still operate at over 60 percent capacity if one compressor fails or is down for maintenance.
HTS also installed equipment in the two labs of the facility, which included the following:
- 9 Daikin Skyline air handling units
- 8 Haakon 100 percent custom outside air handling units with heat recovery coils tied to exhaust units via glycol loops
- 8 Haakon custom air handling units with heat recovery coils and evaporative humidifiers
- 47 Danfoss variable frequency drives
- 115 Williams Fan Coil Units
The main priority for Dow in the labs is redundancy and preventing system failures, so the facility’s air handlers and exhaust system are both designed for N+1 fan operation. This ensures that if one fan fails, the system will still provide 100 percent airflow. HTS accomplished this by dividing the fans between the wings of the building, which allows for two units, or seven fans, to provide full airflow.
