Development of advanced materials guided by numerical simulations to improve performance and cost-efficiency of borehole heat exchangers (BHEs)

One promising way to improve the efficiency of borehole heat exchangers (BHEs) in shallow geothermal applications is to enhance the thermal properties of the materials involved in its construction. Early attempts, such as using metal tubes in the 1980s or the utilization of thin–foil hoses, did not succeed in being adopted by the market for diverse reasons (cost, corrosion, fragility, etc…). In parallel, the optimization of pipe size, the use of double-U-tubes, thermally enhanced grout, etc. were able to bring the measure for the BHE efficiency, the borehole thermal resistance, from 0.20 to 0.15 K/(Wm) down to 0.08–0.06 K/(Wm) in the best solutions today. A further improvement cannot be expected without development of new, dedicated materials, combining the versatility of plastic like PE with an increased thermal conductivity that matches the respective properties of the rock and soil. This goal was included in the Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda of the European Technology Platform on Renewable Heating and Cooling in 2013. Within an EU supported project, both BHE pipes and grouting materials have been produced prototypically in small amounts, suitable for the first tests in the intended environment. The present work explains the research pathways envisaged and the resulting sensitivity analysis to highlight the influence of some of the most critical parameters that affect the overall performance of a GSHP system. The results have allowed guiding the real development of more efficient new advanced materials for different scenarios representative of different European regions. Finally the developed materials and their properties are discussed, including a comparative assessment about their compliance with reference material properties as currently seen in the BHE market. •A vast parameter study for the development of new geothermal materials.•The objective is to obtain the best specifications for pipe and grout materials.•Representative scenarios of all simulations carried out are presented.•Assessment of combined enhancement of pipe thermal conductivity and grouting.•The implementation of the enhanced products could produce a reduction of up to 22%.