Impact of Standing Column Well Operation on Carbonate Scaling

Standing column well constitutes a recent promising solution to provide heating or cooling and to reduce greenhouse gases emissions in urban areas. Nevertheless, scaling issues can emerge in presence of carbonates and impact their efficiency. Even though a thermo-hydro-geochemical model demonstrated the impact of the water temperature on carbonate concentration, this conclusion has not been yet demonstrated by field investigations. To do so, an experimental ground source heat pump system connected to a standing column well was operated under various conditions to collect 50 groundwater samples over a period of 267 days. These field samples were used for mineral analysis and laboratory batch experiments. The results were analyzed with multivariate regression and geochemical simulations and confirmed a clear relationship between the calcium concentrations measured in the well, the temperature and the calcite equilibrium constant. It was also found that operating a ground source heat pump system in conjunction with a small groundwater treatment system allows reduction of calcium concentration in the well, while shutting down the system leads to a quite rapid increase at a level consistent with the regional calcium concentration. Although no major clogging or biofouling problem was observed after two years of operation, mineral scales made of carbonates precipitated on a flowmeter and hindered its operation. The paper provides insight on the impact of standing column well on groundwater quality and suggests some mitigation measures.

Mots clés

scaling; clogging; geothermal open-loop systems; ground heat exchanger; standing column well; water treatment