Evaluation of the Effect of Anti-Corrosion Coatings on the Thermal Resistance of Ground Heat Exchangers for Shallow Geothermal Applications

Gianluca Cadelano, Alessandro Bortolin, Giovanni Ferrarini, Paolo Bison, Giorgia Dalla Santa, Eloisa Di Sipio, Adriana Bernardi and Antonio Galgaro
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Gianluca Cadelano: Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (CNR-ISAC), National Research Council of Italy, 35127 Padua, Italy
Alessandro Bortolin: Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (CNR-ISAC), National Research Council of Italy, 35127 Padua, Italy
Giovanni Ferrarini: Institute of Construction Technologies (CNR-ITC), National Research Council of Italy, 35127 Padua, Italy
Paolo Bison: Institute of Construction Technologies (CNR-ITC), National Research Council of Italy, 35127 Padua, Italy
Giorgia Dalla Santa: Department of Geosciences, University of Padua, 35131 Padua, Italy
Eloisa Di Sipio: Department of Geosciences, University of Padua, 35131 Padua, Italy
Adriana Bernardi: Institute of Atmospheric Sciences and Climate (CNR-ISAC), National Research Council of Italy, 35127 Padua, Italy
Antonio Galgaro: Department of Geosciences, University of Padua, 35131 Padua, Italy

Energies, 2021, vol. 14, issue 9, 1-12

Abstract: The materials and the technology used to build the ground heat exchangers significantly affect the heat transfer performance of a geothermal system, in addition to the local geological and hydrogeological context. Among expense items such as the coupled heat pumps and the applied drilling technology, the heat exchangers play a key role in the shallow geothermal market. For this reason, they are usually made with plastic. Metal tubes are not widely used because of corrosion issues, which can compromise the reliability of the system over time. According to best practices, metal is an unfavorable choice if the pipes are not made of corrosion resistant alloys, such as stainless steel, but the overall performance is strongly related to the heat transfer efficiency. In this study, laser-flash technique is applied on carbon steel samples with anti-corrosion coatings and on corrosion resistant materials (stainless steel grades used for pipes), thus, allowing the comparison of their thermophysical properties. These properties are used to evaluate each solution in terms of thermal resistance. This study demonstrates that there are no particular corrosion resistant steel pipe configurations that are thermally favorable over others in a critical way.

Keywords: shallow geothermal energy; coaxial heat exchangers; pipe corrosion; renewable energy; pipe materials; thermal properties; coatings (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
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