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Investigating the Influence of Groundwater Flow and Charge Cycle Duration on Deep Borehole Heat Exchangers for Heat Extraction and Borehole Thermal Energy Storage

Author

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  • Christopher S. Brown

    (James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK)

  • Hannah Doran

    (James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK)

  • Isa Kolo

    (James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK)

  • David Banks

    (James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK)

  • Gioia Falcone

    (James Watt School of Engineering, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK)

Abstract

Decarbonisation of heat is essential to meeting net zero carbon targets; however, fluctuating renewable resources, such as wind or solar, may not meet peak periods of demand. Therefore, methods of underground thermal energy storage can aid in storing heat in low demand periods to be exploited when required. Borehole thermal energy storage (BTES) is an important technology in storing surplus heat and the efficiency of such systems can be strongly influenced by groundwater flow. In this paper, the effect of groundwater flow on a single deep borehole heat exchanger (DBHEs) was modelled using OpenGeoSys (OGS) software to test the impact of varying regional Darcy velocities on the performance of heat extraction and BTES. It is anticipated that infrastructure such as ex-geothermal exploration or oil and gas development wells approaching the end of life could be repurposed. These systems may encounter fluid flow in the subsurface and the impact of this on single well deep BTES has not previously been investigated. Higher groundwater velocities can increase the performance of a DBHE operating to extract heat only for a heating season of 6 months. This is due to the reduced cooling of rocks in proximity to the DBHE as groundwater flow replenishes heat which has been removed from the rock volume around the borehole (this can also be equivalently thought of as “coolth” being transported away from the DBHE in a thermal plume). When testing varying Darcy velocities with other parameters for a DBHE of 920 m length in rock of thermal conductivity 2.55 W/(m·K), it was observed that rocks with larger Darcy velocity (1e-6 m/s) can increase the thermal output by up to 28 kW in comparison to when there is no groundwater flow. In contrast, groundwater flow inhibits single well deep BTES as it depletes the thermal store, reducing storage efficiency by up to 13% in comparison to models with no advective heat transfer in the subsurface. The highest Darcy velocity of 1e-6 m/s was shown to most influence heat extraction and BTES; however, the likelihood of this occurring regionally, and at depth of around or over 1 km is unlikely. This study also tested varying temporal resolutions of charge and cyclicity. Shorter charge periods allow a greater recovery of heat (c. 34% heat injected recovered for 1 month charge, as opposed to <17% for 6 months charge).

Suggested Citation

  • Christopher S. Brown & Hannah Doran & Isa Kolo & David Banks & Gioia Falcone, 2023. "Investigating the Influence of Groundwater Flow and Charge Cycle Duration on Deep Borehole Heat Exchangers for Heat Extraction and Borehole Thermal Energy Storage," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-22, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:16:y:2023:i:6:p:2677-:d:1095686
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Sean M. Watson & Gioia Falcone & Rob Westaway, 2020. "Repurposing Hydrocarbon Wells for Geothermal Use in the UK: The Onshore Fields with the Greatest Potential," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-29, July.
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    4. Brown, Christopher S. & Kolo, Isa & Falcone, Gioia & Banks, David, 2023. "Investigating scalability of deep borehole heat exchangers: Numerical modelling of arrays with varied modes of operation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 442-452.
    5. Falcone, Gioia & Liu, Xiaolei & Okech, Roy Radido & Seyidov, Ferid & Teodoriu, Catalin, 2018. "Assessment of deep geothermal energy exploitation methods: The need for novel single-well solutions," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 160(C), pages 54-63.
    6. Hu, Xincheng & Banks, Jonathan & Wu, Linping & Liu, Wei Victor, 2020. "Numerical modeling of a coaxial borehole heat exchanger to exploit geothermal energy from abandoned petroleum wells in Hinton, Alberta," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 1110-1123.
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    Cited by:

    1. Zhendi Ma & Siyu Qin & Yuping Zhang & Wei-Hsin Chen & Guosheng Jia & Chonghua Cheng & Liwen Jin, 2023. "Effects of Boundary Conditions on Performance Prediction of Deep-Buried Ground Heat Exchangers for Geothermal Energy Utilization," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(13), pages 1-27, June.
    2. Jun Liu & Yuping Zhang & Zeyuan Wang & Cong Zhou & Boyang Liu & Fenghao Wang, 2023. "Medium Rock-Soil Temperature Distribution Characteristics at Different Time Scales and New Layout Forms in the Application of Medium-Deep Borehole Heat Exchangers," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(19), pages 1-22, October.

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