Groundwater Cooling - AIRAH · water, groundwater cooling has no net loss of water • Performs reliably around the clock regardless of the weather or season • If deployed more

Groundwater Cooling Cooling supercomputers using geothermal energy

CSIRO ENERGY GROUP

Dr Mike Trefry | Director, SESKA Geothermal Project April 2014

Overview

Section 1: Background • Square Kilometre Array • Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder • The Pawsey Centre

Section 2: Sustainable Energy for the SKA • The Groundwater Cooling Project • How it works • Construction and commissioning • Advantages • Hydrogeological and environmental aspects • Facilities integration and control • Real-time performance data • Educational and research outreach

Section 3: The future • What’s next?

Groundwater Cooling | Mike Trefry 2 |

Acknowledgements The CSIRO team: • Project Director: Mike Trefry • Project Sponsor: Dave Williams/Tom Hatton • Earth Science & Resource Engineering Division Deputy Chief: Steve Harvey • Technical Lead: Thomas Poulet • Science Lead: Klaus Regenauer-Lieb • Project Manager: Jacqueline Cook • Scientists/Researchers: Grant Douglas, Heather Sheldon, Peter Schaubs, Praveen Kumar

Rachakonda, Dan Lester, Guy Metcalfe, Ludo Ricard, Lynn Reid • Property Manager: Ken Fogarty • Risk Manager: Sue Brown • Finance Manager: Francoise van Es • Health, Safety and Environment Manager: Louise Beckwith • Procurement Manager: Don Geeves • Communication: Eamonn Bermingham, Nikki Galovic Plus many contractors.


Section 1: Background SKA, ASKAP and the Pawsey Centre

Square Kilometre Array

• Led by the SKA Organisation based in the UK

• Involves institutions from over 20 countries

• Will be the largest and most capable telescope ever constructed

• Will allow astronomers to answer fundamental questions about the universe

• Australia and southern Africa will each host different components of the telescope

• Made up of a single, very large telescope and millions of small antennas


Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder

• CSIRO’s world-leading radio telescope

• An array of 36 antennas, each 12 metres in diameter, working together as a single instrument

• Located in the remote mid-west region of WA

• Captures radio images with unprecedented sensitivity over large areas of sky

• In one week ASKAP will generate more information than is currently contained on the whole World Wide Web


The Pawsey Centre

• World-class supercomputing centre

• Supports the Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder research, geosciences and other high-end science

• $80 million Federal Government funding

• CSIRO built and commissioned the Pawsey Centre in trust for iVEC


Section 2: Sustainable Energy for the SKA Groundwater Cooling

The Project

• At full capacity the Pawsey Centre supercomputer will generate a lot of heat (0.8 MWth)

• CSIRO developed a geothermal solution known as groundwater cooling

• Expected to save up to 14.5 million litres of water in the first two years of operation compared to conventional cooling towers

• Funded by the Australian Government’s Education Investment Fund

• Has the potential to revolutionise the way we cool our buildings


How does it work?

The system involves pumping cool water from a shallow aquifer beneath the Australian Resources Research Centre (ARRC) in Perth, through an above-ground heat exchanger to cool the supercomputer, before reinjecting the water underground again.


What is the Mullaloo Aquifer?

• Part of the Kings Park Formation

• Sandy sequence of the Mullaloo Sandstone Member

• Localized valley deposit

• Heterogeneous paleochannel aquifer


Pawsey

Construction and commissioning

• Majority of the drilling for the production system occurred in 2013

• The system consists of: • 2 cold water extraction wells • 2 cold water injection wells • 2 warm water injection wells • 9 monitoring wells

• The system became operational and was commissioned by CSIRO Chief Executive, Dr Megan Clark in November 2013


Advantages

• Unlike conventional cooling towers, which use large amounts of water, groundwater cooling has no net loss of water

• Performs reliably around the clock regardless of the weather or season

• If deployed more widely it has the potential to replace cooling towers in buildings including major facilities such as hospitals and industrial operations

• The power required to run the groundwater cooling pumps is to be offset by an array of solar panels on the roof of the Pawsey Centre


Stratigraphy



Sediments

Parameter Davidson and Yu (2006) Rockwater (2011)

KH (m/d) 10 - 15 8 - 45

S (-) 1 - 5 x 10-4 7 - 10 x 10-4

Hydrogeological and environmental aspects

• The project deployed monitoring instruments and conducted modelling to ensure negligible environmental impact

• Modelling shows there will be minimal impact on: • water level of the aquifer for

neighbouring residents • temperature of the water in the

aquifer • Kensington Bushland (local

vegetation in the area) • Mullaloo geochemistry is

reasonably benign, with thin pyrite horizons at depth


• Quartz-dominated sediments, with minor carbonates, K-feldspars and clays, ilmenite/rutile, and pyrite at depth.

• Coarse grains with high void porosity

• Trace elements: elevated Cr, V, Zr, ± S, As also notable

• Water composition: Na-Cl type, low TDS, some nutrients and DOC, no BTEX

• Low numbers of microbes, but with potential for clogging


Geochemical Results

Palynology – organic-rich horizon, upper Mullaloo

• Palynological analysis indicates organic-rich horizon is early Tertiary, likely Eocene

• Marine/estuarine facies – similar to present Swan Estuary?

Dinoflagellate (algal) cyst - Maturodinium fimbriata

Protea spore - Proteacidites crassus

Fern spore - Clavifera triplex


Real-time performance data

• The system’s bores are set up with advanced monitoring equipment

• Data from the system is logged using the Pawsey Centre’s Building Management System

• Live and historical data is made available via the groundwater cooling website for researchers to access

www.groundwatercooling.csiro.au


Engineering data: • Pressure • Flow rate

Geochemistry data: • Temperature • pH • Redox potential • Dissolved oxygen • Turbidity • Conductivity

Real-time performance data


Facilities integration and control


• The system is fully controllable through the Building Management System (BMS)

• All electronic and hydraulic equipment has monitoring sondes sending real-time information to the BMS

• Alarms are connected to monitor system behaviour

• Automated safe-shutdown procedures are in place if problems occur

• Backup cooling towers and a refrigerated circuit are in place in case the system stops functioning

Facilities integration and control


Education and research outreach

• Collaboration with Curtin University on geochemical research • Groundwater Cooling 3D Interpretive Centre • Interactive signage • Geophysical, geochemical, geological research opportunities • Calibrate numerical models and gain deeper understanding of the

system


Section 3: The future What’s next?

• Analysing results • Behaviour of the system • Aquifer characterisation and water

sampling • Calibrating models • Research collaborations • Applications of the technology

to other buildings and facilities

Groundwater Cooling | Mike Trefry

What’s next?

25 |

CSIRO Geothermal Project Dr Mike Trefry Director, SESKA Geothermal Project t +61 2 9123 4567 e [email protected] w groundwatercooling.csiro.au

CSIRO EARTH SCIENCE AND RESOURCE ENGINEERING

Thank you

Documents

Groundwater Cooling - AIRAH · water, groundwater cooling has no net loss of water • Performs reliably around the clock regardless of the weather or season • If deployed more