Evaluation of the performance of transcritical CO2 heat pump cycle in conjunction with wastewater energy transfer (WET) system for combined space heating, cooling, and water heating

Wastewater is an abundant and an underutilized thermal energy source that experiences relatively constant temperature year-round with predicted flow rates. These features serve as a heat source/sink for heat pump-based HVAC systems to provide combined heating, cooling and domestic hot water to large-scale commercial, residential, and institutional buildings. There is a substantial potential in extracting enough thermal energy from sewer with relatively low carbon footprint. As conventional refrigerants have hazardous environmental consequences, using CO2 as working fluid for heat pump systems gained much attention in the last few decades. In this study, a transcritical CO2 heat pump performance in sewer wastewater heat recovery system in different building applications will be modeled, analyzed, and optimized to achieve the required demand loads at low carbon emission, high energy savings and low operating cost. After installing the pilot projects, experimental investigation will be carried out to validate the developed models and state-of-art for potential future improvements.

Faculty Supervisor:

Alan Fung;Darko Joksimovic

Student:

Ahmad Mhanna

Partner:

Noventa

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

Energy

University:

Ryerson University