Performance Analyses of Geothermal and Geothermoelectric Pavement Snow Melting System

Abstract

Geothermal heat pumps are characterized as environmentally friendly, cost-effective, and reliable, and a thermoelectric generator is a sustainable, scalable energy-harvesting technique. In this paper, an innovative and multifunctional design for a snow melting system is proposed that combines a geothermal heat pump system with a thermoelectric generator (i.e., geothermoelectrical system) to promote sustainable and intelligent transportation infrastructure development. The performance of the geothermal heat exchanger (GHE) and thermoelectric harvester were predicted using holistic computational models. Based on this, energy balance analyses were conducted to determine the amount of extracted heat by GHE and the extent its use for pavement snow melting as well as to estimate the total amount of electricity that can be produced by converting the extracted heat from the GHE via thermoelectric harvesting. The results show that the heat extracted by GHE from underground provided reasonable coverage areas for snow melting, particularly when real-time melting is not required, whereas its capability is limited for real-time snow melting. The amount of electricity that can be harvested is also limited due to the low efficiency of thermoelectric conversion. The stored energy, however, can provide supplement energy for snow melting or be used to supply electricity for utilities. As a source of green energy, the potential of geothermal and geothermoelectrical energy for transportation applications is promising but remains to be further explored.