M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust visits ACEP for Project Updates

Moses Lee, the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust senior director of scientific research and enrichment programs, recently visited UAF to see a number of Murdock Trust-funded activities.

The M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust’s mission is to serve individuals, families and communities across the Pacific Northwest by providing grants and enrichment programs to organizations that strengthen the region’s educational, social, spiritual and cultural base in creative and sustainable ways. ACEP has received three awards from the Trust for our research in renewable energy, microgrid technologies and, most recently, the expanded microchannel heat exchanger for absorption chilling.

This heat exchanger could make refrigerators, seafood processing and many other applications more efficient, saving energy and emissions. The project, led by ACEP faculty David Denkenberger with students Logan VanClifford, Zion Alioto and Josiah Alverts, is also funded by the Office of Naval Research. 

Earlier in 2021, a 250-ampere Spitzenberger and Spies resistive/inductive line length simulator was installed in ACEP’s Energy Technology Facility. The simulator allows the replication of actual impedances and dynamics of microgrid distribution networks. In addition, a thermal engine test stand was installed in the Energy Technology Facility. This system provides cooling infrastructure for diesel generators and to test and develop renewable energy to heat technologies.

In 2013, the trust funded ACEP’s Alaska Hydrokinetic Energy Research Center to customize a research barge that forms the central platform at the Tanana River Hydrokinetic Test Site near Nenana. This barge, in collaboration with UAF fisheries researchers, has provided the platform for testing of various in-river energy generating devices under real conditions.

ACEP greatly appreciates the support of the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust and the research it has made possible, which is helping communities around Alaska and the world.

 

David Denkenberger (left) speaks to Moses Lee of the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust with Jeremy Kasper, Logan VanClifford, Zion Alioto, and Josiah Alverts. Photo by Gwen Holdmann.