A closer look at Enabling Technologies
The Push-It project not only works on site to create UTES systems. It also develops enabling technologies to make it easier to create and implement those systems. All these technologies should be applicable in in other places, so they are not specifically made for the site they are made at. Among others, there are four main technologies that are being developed by the Push-It project.
Co-simulation
Co-simulation is a technique where the UTES system is simulated in a computer model alongside the actual system. With that model, certain changes can first be tested on the model before actually committing to them on site.
Smart district Heating controller
For maximal efficiency in both reduction of greenhouse gas emissions and economy of these expensive UTES systems, a controller is developed. This controller optimizes the long-term charging and discharging of the system and also aims to influence the short term heat demand of the network, so it fits the best with the system.
“If we make good decisions, energy can be cheaper and emit less carbon emissions.”
Hot Push Pull Tests
In the Hot Push Pull Test, the injected groundwater is heated and injected at a higher temperature and provided with one or more tracers. The temperature serves as a kind of tracer to determine the thermal properties of the aquifer. The impact of higher temperatures on potential geochemical and microbiological effects is very important and is investigated through a continuous sampling program conducted during the test.
Water Quality
Water quality issues represent technical challenges for thermal energy storage. The main issues relate to corrosion and scaling in wells, to clogging and loss of injectivity/productivity in near-well areas, and to possible geochemically and microbiologically induced alterations in shallower (drinking) aquifers due to thermal changes. Industrial companies have already potential solutions to manage water quality for low temperature thermal energy storage systems, but specificities of higher temperature thermal energy storage need to be thoroughly investigated.
All these technologies contribute to the goal of the Push It project to develop the technology that makes heat networks a safe, reliable, affordable, and economically viable solution that fits existing and future regulatory frameworks. This contributes to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and achieving a net-zero carbon economy and society in Europe by 2050.
PUSH-IT is a project funded by the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101096566.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.
