On the former Waterschei mine site in Genk, the Thorpark science park will in the future accommodate eleven technology and research-related buildings. The renovated Thor Central mine building and three recent buildings are already in use today.
An impressive master plan is ready for the site: each building there will soon be heated sustainably and renewably with its own heat pump. The heat pumps draw their source heat from a collective low-temperature network on the site via a series of ATES boreholes. This ATES technique - 'cold and heat storage' - allows energy to be stored in the groundwater throughout the seasons. Because the buildings also use this grid as an energy-efficient cold source for cooling in the summer, residual heat from the cooling systems can be stored in the groundwater in the summer. In winter, this heat is then reused as a heat source for the heat pumps. The result is very low CO2 emissions for cooling and heating the buildings on the site.
At the request of POM Limburg, Ingenium examined how the technical systems in the existing historic Thor Central building and the relatively recent IncubaThor office building should be adapted to also be part of this promising system. To this end, the necessary adjustments to lower the temperature of the central heating in the buildings to acceptable levels to enable integration with a heat pump were first examined. The heat and cooling demand of both buildings was simulated on an hourly basis. A number of scenarios for integrating the heat pumps and cooling systems with the current facilities were developed for each building. The impact of these scenarios was evaluated based on CO2 emissions, sustainable share in the total heat and cold production, investment cost, maintenance cost and total cost of ownership. Each scenario was hydraulically worked out in detail. IFTECH supported Ingenium from its experience in operating such systems. Finally, in collaboration with IFTECH and AGT , the implantation of the ATES source pairs for Thor Central and IncubaThor, and what the hydrogeological impact is on the existing and planned ATES source pairs, were examined.
More information? Contact our expert Joris Dedecker by e-mail(joris.dedecker@ingenium.be) or by phone: 050 40 45 30
Source photo: Thor Central
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