Development of a thermally enhanced nano-material for ground energy storage

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Researchers at Ryerson University, the University of Toronto, and McMaster University are collaborating with McClymont and Rak geotechnical engineers to develop a new sustainable thermal storage technology that addresses the main challenges that have prevented geoexchange adoption in a meaningful way in Canada. An innovative thermal storage medium, based on a construction slurry will be developed and used as an underground thermal storage system, coupled to a ground source heat pump, to provide high-performance building heating and cooling. This new, inexpensive technology will be able to be effectively integrated withsolar heating, making it more cost competitive with natural gas, leading to increased adoption and considerableCO2 emissions reduction in the building sector.Nano-material experts at the University of Toronto will be developing and testing new nano-engineered bentonite materials for use in the underground storage medium. Civil engineering researchers at McMaster University will be testing the heat transfer and thermal storage characteristics of those materials in a laboratory scale deep ground emulator. Mechanical engineering researchers at Ryerson will be building computer models of the technical functionality and economic feasibility of the system. The team will look forward to full scale implementation with the company partner at their testing site, for data acquisition, model validation, and togain an understanding of the technical and economic feasibility of the technology.