SBIR Phase I: Innovative Advection-Enhanced Geothermal Heat Pump Fieldloop Demonstration

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project is to address the high costs associated with building heating and cooling in a sustainable fashion. Heating/cooling constitute approximately 48% of building energy consumption. Ground-source or geothermal heat pumps (GSHPs) represent an energy-efficient and environmentally sustainable heating and cooling solution, but their high upfront capital costs have significantly limited deployment. This project takes a fundamentally different approach to GSHP heat transfer, with the expected result that installation costs are decreased by up to 50% and operating costs by 20% compared to conventional GSHP systems. This project will thoroughly field test and analyze the performance of the GSHP innovation, advancing the technology design and installation parameters, and readying it for commercial deployment. This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project addresses the problem of the high installation cost and large, disruptive footprint of GSHP systems, with the objective to provide a cost-effective, widely-deployable, renewable solution for building heating and cooling. This project will advance an innovative GSHP field loop technology from numerical and laboratory analyses to manufacturing and field testing. The overall research objective is to determine the performance of the innovative GSHP field loop under real-world conditions. The research program includes: 1) development of a comprehensive numerical model of the innovative GSHP system for field sites; 2) field testing, including final design, installation, and operation of equipment at a field site; 3) numerical model and equipment design refinement following initial field testing; 4) installation and testing of modified equipment; and 5) development of a comprehensive cost, energy use and emissions model. It is anticipated that the project will result in a commercially-ready GSHP product, with design and installation guidelines, that substantially (by up to 50%) reduces the installation cost of GSHPs while improving their performance. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.