Assessment of Environmental Impacts of Thermal Caisson Geothermal Systems

Pouria Abbasi, Masih Alavy (), Pavel Belansky and Marc A. Rosen
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Pouria Abbasi: Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON M5S 3G8, Canada
Masih Alavy: Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, ON L1G 0C5, Canada
Pavel Belansky: Capture Technologies Corporation, Caledon, ON L7C 0B3, Canada
Marc A. Rosen: Department of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, Ontario Tech University, Oshawa, ON L1G 0C5, Canada

Resources, 2024, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-22

Abstract: This paper investigates the total environmental impacts of a thermal caisson (TC) system by implementing a life cycle assessment methodology. The total environmental impacts consider the comprehensive effect on the environment across two life cycle stages: manufacturing and operation. A comparison between the TC results and two different HVAC systems, including air-conditioning/furnace and conventional ground-source heat pump (GSHP) systems, was made by adopting the ReCiPe 2016 methodology. This study reveals that the operation phase is the predominant contributor to environmental impacts across systems, mainly due to its extended duration. Specifically, the operational impacts of GSHPs are substantial, accounting for approximately 87% of total environmental impacts. A TC GSHP system demonstrates a notable environmental advantage, achieving a 79% reduction in total environmental impact when compared to traditional AC/furnace systems. This represents a 21% improvement over conventional GSHP systems. Despite this substantial reduction in total environmental impact, the TC GSHP system shows an almost 5% increase in the resource availability damage category relative to the conventional GSHP, which is attributed to its higher material consumption. These results highlight the TC GSHP system’s superior efficiency in reducing environmental impacts and its potential as a more sustainable alternative in residential heating and cooling applications.

Keywords: thermal caisson; ground source heat pump; life cycle assessment (LCA); environmental impact; phase change material (PCM); ground heat exchanger; HVAC; geothermal (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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