Deep Borehole Heat Exchangers – a Conceptual Review

Abstract

Borehole heat exchangers are used for transforming a rock mass into an underground heat storage. Usually, their depth does not exceed 200 m, but some extend to a depth of almost 3000 m. Underground heat storages can operate as part of heating and cooling systems, often economically. In winter they extract heat from the rock mass for space heating, while in summer the cooled rock mass is used for air conditioning. The heat extracted from buildings via air conditioning is transferred into the rock mass, thereby regenerating its condition for winter time. Deep borehole exchangers also may operate only in the heating mode. Then, the rock resource conditions are regenerated via heat transfer through neighboring rocks. If a groundwater flow is present, the heat can also be removed and the source conditions regenerated through convection. Here, an overview is provided of the use and operation of deep borehole heat exchangers around the world. Special emphasis is placed on the Carpathians, where numerous analyses of geothermal heat use have been performed since 1999. Examples of calculations for old oil and gas wells as well as negative exploration boreholes are given. Such analyses have been performed for boreholes in Poland and the Ukraine. However little research has been published on this subject to date, for reasons described herein.