Design and Performance Evaluation of a Heat Pump System Utilizing a Permanent Dewatering System

Seung-Hoon Park, Yong-Sung Jang and Eui-Jong Kim
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Seung-Hoon Park: Department of Architectural Engineering, INHA University, Inha-ro 100, Michuhol-gu, Incheon 22212, Korea
Yong-Sung Jang: GS E&C Research Institute, Baegok-daero 388, Cheoin-gu, Youngin, Gyeonggi-do 17130, Korea
Eui-Jong Kim: Department of Architectural Engineering, INHA University, Inha-ro 100, Michuhol-gu, Incheon 22212, Korea

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 8, 1-16

Abstract: The earth provides a vast resource of groundwater from aquifers a few meters beneath the surface. Thus, buildings that use underground space must be equipped with dewatering wells to drain the permeated groundwater to the sewage pipelines to ensure the structural stability of the building. Although the inflowing groundwater temperatures and flow rates are stable enough for groundwater to be used as an energy source, 79% of the permeated groundwater is discarded through the sewers, generating significant sewerage expenses. This study introduced a novel heat exchanger module to utilize the permeated groundwater as an unused energy source using heat pumps, and the performance of the system was evaluated by TRNSYS simulations. First, the sizing of the unit heat exchanger module was proposed according to the mean inflow rate of the permeated groundwater. Second, the heat pump system was configured using multiple modules in the source-side loop. Finally, the performance of the proposed heat pump system was compared with that of a conventional air source heat pump using realistic load and temperature profiles. This preliminary study demonstrated interesting performance results, with a coefficient of performance for heating that was higher than that of a conventional heat pump system by 0.79. The results show the potential utilization of the systems for a construction project requiring large-scale underground spaces, where abundant groundwater is available.

Keywords: building energy; groundwater; heat pump system; permanent dewatering; unused energy source (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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