A comparative study on the performance of ice-source heat pumps versus other heat source heat pumps: A case study in the UK

Eliminating natural gas as a fuel for heating residential and industrial units is crucial for reducing environmental pollutants. The challenge lies in finding alternative heating systems and repurposing existing infrastructures, like gas pipes. This article presents a new approach to supplying energy to heat pumps in a post-natural gas era using repurposed gas pipes to transport water for ice-source heat pumps. It highlights the advantages of ice-source heat pumps and compares their thermal performance with other types. The proposed system integrates ice-source and geothermal heat pumps, offering space efficiency, compact design, cost-effective centralization, optimized subsidies, seasonal cooling, weather resilience, and eliminates the need for new piping. This study evaluates heat pump efficiency using various low-grade heat sources: ambient air, ground, domestic wastewater, river and lake water, piped water, and latent heat. It focuses on optimizing heat pump performance under the UK's climatic conditions, addressing efficiency challenges during peak cold periods. The research demonstrates the system's robust performance in cold, densely populated areas, potentially reducing water mass for energy supply by up to 95 % with a 70 % ice slurry concentration. Additionally, the ice-source heat pump requires about 36.7 times less water volume than traditional systems for residential heating.