Think GeoEnergy
Summary
With a closer cooperation of Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Infrastructures and Geothermal Energy and Ruhr University of Bochum, Prof. Dr. Rolf Bracke has been appointed new chair for geothermal energy systems at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB).
With the loss of coal and natural gas combustion, district heating needs a new energy source [in Germany and beyond]. Herefore geothermal energy is a suitable replacement, in former mining regions even with the heat of mine water as a suitable option.
How to optimally utilise the potential s the focus of the work of Prof. Dr. Rolf Bracke. On May 1, 2020, he was appointed to the new chair for geothermal energy systems at the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering at the Ruhr University Bochum (RUB). He is also head of the new Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Infrastructures and Geothermal Energy, IEG for short, which started work in early 2020 and into which the Bochum International Geothermal Center was integrated.
“With the joint appointment of Rolf Bracke, the RUB not only consolidates the association with non-university partners,” said Prof. Dr. Andreas Ostendorf, Vice-Rector for Research, Transfer and Young Researchers at RUB. But “we are also increasing the visibility and attractiveness of Bochum as a research location.”
Mine water can provide heat
“Germany has a gigantic district heating infrastructure, which today is fed with heat from the combustion of hard coal and lignite, waste heat from the steel industry and to a lesser extent from waste incineration,” explains Rolf Bracke. If coal combustion ceases and more and more waste is recycled, new sources of heat have to be used, and this already in the next 15 years. Deep geothermal energy and – especially in the Ruhr area – heat of the mine water are possible.
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