Modelling the Viability of Heat Recovery from Underground Pipes. Deterministic modelling of wastewater temperatures in a 3000 sewer pipe network

Abstract

Modelling wastewater temperature variations in a network of 3048 sewer pipes was achieved in this project. Recovering heat from sewers presents attractive options for producing clean energy. However, heat recovery from sewerage may result in wastewater temperature drops which may reduce the influent temperature at the wastewater treatment plant (WWTP). This drop in the WWTP influent temperature may result in the degradation of the biological treatment stage. Therefore, it is vital to predict the impact of recovering heat from sewers on the wastewater temperature. Sewer temperatures along with hydraulic data were measured for up to a year in four different Belgian sites. The measured data was utilised to calibrate a deterministic sewer pipe model that estimates the wastewater temperature variation along the sewer pipe profiles. The latter model was calibrated using data from two sites and then validated using independent data from the other two sites. The sewer pipe model was then further developed to model wastewater temperature variations in a large (3048 pipe) network. The large network model was tested by implementing three different heat recovery scenarios. It was observed that 9 MW may be recovered from the 3048 pipe network, serving a catchment with a population equivalent of 79500 inhabitants, without impacting negatively on the biological processes.