ITER Project: Improving Thermal Efficiency of hoRizontal ground heat exchangers

In the near future the population living in urban areas is expected to increase. This worldwide trend will lead to a high concentrations of infrastructures and human beings in confined areas, whose impact on land use and shallow subsurface must be well evaluated. Since shallow geothermal energy resource is becoming increasingly important as renewable energy resource, due to its huge potential in providing thermal energy for residential and tertiary buildings and in contributing to reduce greenhouse gas emission, the number of installed geothermal systems is expected to continue to rise in the near future. However, a leading question concerns the short and long-term effect of an intensive thermal use of the shallow subsurface for heat generation, cooling and thermal energy storage. From an environmental and technical point of view, changes on ground temperatures can influence the physical-thermal properties of soil and groundwater as well as their chemical and biological features. In this study the preliminary results of ITER Project are presented. This project, funded by European Union, focuses on improving heat transfer efficiency of very shallow geothermal systems, as horizontal collector systems or special forms (i.e. helix system), interesting the first 2 m of depth from ground level. Main aim is to improve our knowledge of heat transfer process in the soil body in order (i) to create thermally enhanced backfilling material (TEBM) able to enhance the heat transfer of the ground surrounding the horizontal pipes; (ii) to assess the performance and the environmental impacts of new promising technological solutions; (iii) to monitor the results over time through direct measurements and numerical simulation, in order to understand the heat pollution effect in the surrounding environment. Moreover, projects and ideas challenging a better performance of shallow geothermal plants as those promoted by ITER are expected to support the European economic growth and technological excellence, boosting competitiveness and job creation, taking into account also the individual and collective well-being of citizens, protecting the environment and, accordingly, the human health.Poster ESOF CONFERENCE MSCA Satellite Event, 28-29.07.2016, Manchester, U