Development of advanced materials guided by numerical simulations to improve performance and cost-efficiency of borehole heat exchangers (BHEs)

Borja Badenes, Burkhard Sanner, Miguel Ángel Mateo Pla, José Manuel Cuevas, Flavia Bartoli, Francesco Ciardelli, Rosa M. González, Ali Nejad Ghafar, Patrick Fontana, Lenin Lemus Zuñiga and Javier F. Urchueguía

Energy, 2020, vol. 201, issue C

Abstract: One promising way to improve the efficiency of borehole heat exchangers (BHEs) in shallow geothermal applications is to enhance the thermal properties of the materials involved in its construction. Early attempts, such as using metal tubes in the 1980s or the utilization of thin–foil hoses, did not succeed in being adopted by the market for diverse reasons (cost, corrosion, fragility, etc…). In parallel, the optimization of pipe size, the use of double-U-tubes, thermally enhanced grout, etc. were able to bring the measure for the BHE efficiency, the borehole thermal resistance, from 0.20 to 0.15 K/(Wm) down to 0.08–0.06 K/(Wm) in the best solutions today. A further improvement cannot be expected without development of new, dedicated materials, combining the versatility of plastic like PE with an increased thermal conductivity that matches the respective properties of the rock and soil. This goal was included in the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda of the European Technology Platform on Renewable Heating and Cooling in 2013.

Keywords: Shallow geothermal energy; Borehole heat exchangers (BHE); Thermal conductivity; Plastic pipes; Grouting material; Phase-change material (PCM); Increased efficiency; Cost reduction (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (12)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:201:y:2020:i:c:s0360544220307350

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2020.117628

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