(599d) Development of Integrated Geothermal District Heating and Cooling (GDHC) System at West Virginia University Campus-Morgantown, WV

The Morgantown campus of West Virginia University (WVU) is uniquely positioned to host the first geothermal deep direct-use district heating system in the eastern United States. While much of the eastern United States is not blessed with extremely high heat temperatures, the northeastern part of West Virginia is unique in having a basin that is expected to support the achievable flowrate of geofluid through target formations, with sufficient temperatures at depth. These two factors were identified in the 2006 MIT Future of Geothermal Energy Report to be the two most critical factors in minimizing cost of geothermal energy. Our overall project objective is to complete an optimized design for the geothermal system, minimizing the delivered Levelized Cost of Heat (LCOH). In this work, the year-round thermal energy demand on the campus is estimated by recording the steam temperature, pressure and flow rate at steam distribution points. Based on the estimated energy demand and feasible geothermal production flow rate and temperature, different scenarios for surface plant facility are designed. The campus steam demand will be supplied by a geothermal hybrid system, where condensate is preheated using geothermal fluid and it is further heated to required conditions by either natural gas or biomass boilers. Performance of the hybrid geothermal system is modeled using Aspen Plus simulation software. An economic analysis for the geothermal district heating and cooling (GDHC) system is performed using GEOPHIRES (GEOthermal energy for the Production of Heat and electricity Economically Simulated) and feasibility of the GDHC system is determined by comparing costs and benefits with the existing heating and cooling system.

Acknowledgment: This material is based upon work supported by the U.S. DOE's Office of EERE under the GTO, under Award Number DE-EE0008105.