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Environmental impact assessment of ground source heat pump system for heating and cooling: a case study in China

  • LCA FOR ENERGY SYSTEMS AND FOOD PRODUCTS
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Abstract

Purpose

Ground source heat pump (GSHP) utilizes shallow geothermal energy to meet the heating and cooling needs of buildings. It has drawn global attention owing to its environmental friendliness and high energy efficiency. China ranks second and first in terms of the installed capacity and energy use of GSHPs, respectively. This study aims to explore the environmental impacts of GSHP systems in China to identify the key improvements and provide recommendations for optimizing the environmental performance.

Methods

The environmental impact assessment was conducted on the basis of a life cycle assessment framework with the application of the ReCiPe 2016 method. The system boundary of the investigated system was established by applying a cradle-to-gate approach and involved the installment and operational stages. The functional unit was defined as 20 years of heating and cooling by applying GSHP.

Results and discussion

Results showed that the potential impacts of GSHP systems were mainly concentrated in global warming and human health at the midpoint and endpoint levels, respectively. These environmental burdens were dominated by carbon dioxide emissions from the electricity generation process. Polyethylene pipe production provided additional contributions to partial categories. The comparative analysis results indicated that the energy consumption and carbon emissions of the GSHP system were reduced by 40.53% and 35.23%, respectively, in the entire life cycle compared with those of coal-fired heating and air conditioner cooling systems.

Conclusions

Findings of this study indicated that GSHPs could effectively reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions compared with conventional heating and cooling systems. To improve the environmental performance of GSHP systems further, applying renewable energy as electricity sources and substituting polyethylene pipes with steel pipes are suggested.

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Funding

This study is funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71974113), Foundation of Shandong Lunan Geological Engineering Survey Institute (LNY2020-Z03), National Key R&D Program Project (No. 2019YFB1504104), and Distinguished professor program by Shandong university (ShanDaRenZi 2021–19).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Shandong Provincial Key Laboratory of Water Pollution Control and Resource Reuse, School of Environmental Science and Engineering, Shandong University, Qingdao, Shandong, 266237, People’s Republic of China

    Yijie Zhai, Tianzuo Zhang, Changxing Ji, Yueyang Bai, Xiaoxu Shen & Jinglan Hong

  2. Shandong Provincial Lunan Geology and Exploration Institute (Shandong Provincial Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources No.2 Geological Brigade), Jining, Shandong, 272100, People’s Republic of China

    Xianfeng Tan, Guiling Wang, Qipeng Shi & Jia Meng

  3. China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan, Hubei, 430074, People’s Republic of China

    Xianfeng Tan & Longchen Duan

  4. Shandong Provincial Engineering Research Center of Geothermal Energy Exploration and Development, Jining, Shandong, 272100, People’s Republic of China

    Xianfeng Tan & Qipeng Shi

  5. The Institute of Hydrogeology and Environmental Geology, Chinese Academy of Geological Science, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, 050061, People’s Republic of China

    Guiling Wang

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  1. Yijie Zhai
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  2. Tianzuo Zhang
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  8. Yueyang Bai
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  9. Xiaoxu Shen
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  10. Jia Meng
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  11. Jinglan Hong
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Correspondence to Guiling Wang or Jinglan Hong.

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Communicated by Zuoren Nie.

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Zhai, Y., Zhang, T., Tan, X. et al. Environmental impact assessment of ground source heat pump system for heating and cooling: a case study in China. Int J Life Cycle Assess 27, 395–408 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-022-02034-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-022-02034-z

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