Heat Transfer and Economic Analysis of Seawater-Source Heat Pump System with Casted Heat Exchanger

There is an increasing trend in using seawater-source heat pump system (SWHP) in heating and air conditioning systems of commercial and residential buildings in coastal cities in China. This paper established a heat transfer model for casted heat exchanger (CHE) adopted by SWHP systems in winter and summer mode. The CHE was consisted of pipes immersed in the seawater and used for transferring heat between the seawater and the heat exchanger pipes of SWHP system. An experimental study was carried out to test the validity of the model. An office building, located in Tianjin Port, near the 30 thousand ton oil terminal was described. The economic, energy and environmental impacts were compared between the two systems. In conclusion, the results shown the SWHP system with CHE was able to reduce the power consumption and air pollution emissions. It was demonstrated that the use of ocean thermal energy in Tianjin shown a promising prospect in the near future and had great potential for development in coastal cities in China.