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| University of Calgary |
Imagine using geothermal heat from oil and gas wells to offset the burning of natural gas for domestic and commercial space heating.
That is a concept Rachel Scharein and her fellow fourth-year classmates investigated as part of a University of Calgary project course in sustainable energy, environment and economy.
“You could either use actual fluid that is coming out of the well itself, or you could actually pump a fluid down into the well — ethylene glycol is what we were looking at,” the 27-year-old mechanical engineering student told the Daily Oil Bulletin.
“You have a piping system that will distribute it to the homes, and then through a heat exchanger you would use it to heat up the homes.”