Wastewater heat reclaim
Wastewater heat reclaim
(OP)
Hi, I've previously posted this question in the energy forum, but I wanted to also post it here because nowadays HVAC engineers deal a lot with this kind of project too. I thought I might find some valuable advise here.
I'm working on a project where we would like to harvest the heat in the wastewater in a wastewater treatment plant. We're thinking to use water-water heat pump to get the heat for a number of other purposes, such as providing heat for the building, domestic hot water, the wastewater treatment processes, etc.
1. Do think think it's feasible?
2. What would be your approaches to this project, and what type of equipment are you thinking of using?
3. Is it possible to use the heat for building cooling too? (Absorption chiller? or using the sewer as a heat sink for water-air heat pump?)
Thanks.
Thank you.
I'm working on a project where we would like to harvest the heat in the wastewater in a wastewater treatment plant. We're thinking to use water-water heat pump to get the heat for a number of other purposes, such as providing heat for the building, domestic hot water, the wastewater treatment processes, etc.
1. Do think think it's feasible?
2. What would be your approaches to this project, and what type of equipment are you thinking of using?
3. Is it possible to use the heat for building cooling too? (Absorption chiller? or using the sewer as a heat sink for water-air heat pump?)
Thanks.
Thank you.





RE: Wastewater heat reclaim
Couple of thoughts.. sewage is hard on heat exchangers, and there isn't a pile of data. I know an engineer who has spent a large amount of time pumping pig manure around, and he complains constantly about the lack of data.
A heat pump has potential, provided you can find a heat exchanger to pump the wastewater through. You could do a 'water source heat pump' with a closed loop coil in the waste... I see issues with fouling.
Absorption chilling would be a challenge in that you generally require fairly high grade heat, and most heat pumps work less efficiently the higher the grade of heat you are producing. McQuay has a scroll Templifier that does have some capabilities to do higher discharge temperatures.
Cost would be the other issue, as you end up stacking equipment on top of equipment (Sewage to HX, HX to Heat Pump, Heat Pump to Chiller).
Another energy/CO2 concept would be to capture the methane produced by the waste (typically flared) and run it through a CHP.
Just some thoughts, interesting project.
RE: Wastewater heat reclaim
The only other small scale sewer waste heat reclaim that is out there is the GFX residential/commercial drain pipe heat recovery thingy- basically a whole whack of copper tubing wrapped around the outgoing sanitary sewer drain to pre-heat the cold water being routed into the domestic hot water heater.
RE: Wastewater heat reclaim
RE: Wastewater heat reclaim
RE: Wastewater heat reclaim
RE: Wastewater heat reclaim
RE: Wastewater heat reclaim
RE: Wastewater heat reclaim