SBIR-STTR Award

The project focus is on a ground source heating/cooling system for new or existing farm buildings. Otisco Engineering has developed a unique tube-in-tube loop design manifold and installation method that will benefit farms. The unique system and installation method provides equivalent or superior heat transfer than conventional vertical well/U-tube methods of geothermal design. Our design also offers the following advantages. Much easier to retrofit on a previously developed farm Causes little to no damage to existing landscaping or farm fields; and For an existing 6000 square foot building (a typical farm building size) the system can be installed and commissioned in two days. The project will include advancement of the design of a unique modular. plastic injection molded manifold that can be easily assembled to customize to the number of heat exchanger ground loops. The installation method includes the use of these modular manifolds tube-in-tube arrangement and horizontal boring approach. The installed system will be verified by data acquisition during the winter and summer heating/cooling periods. The measurement of flow and temperature of individual loops will provide the actual BTU sourced from the earth to verify system performance. The manifold design will be easier and more economical to install and readily scalable to heat and cool multiple buildings on a farm.

Under this Small Business Innovation Research Program Phase II grant application to USDA- NIFA Otisco Engineering and its collaborating partners in research (The Ohio State University Columbus Ohio USA) and manufacturing (Water Furnace Fort Wayne Indiana USA) will advance a geothermal heating and cooling ground-loop system design the Otisco Ground-loop TM TM System .The ground-loop for the Otisco Ground-loop System is installed using a horizontal directional drilling (HDD) machine positioned at one location. Each ground loop is directed radially outward from the HDD machine directed underground in a slight arc essentially horizontal. Otisco Engineering's Phase I project included an on-farm installation of the Otisco Ground-loop TM System in Johnstown Ohio with data acquisition to demonstrate the operational viability of the system. The Phase I report also documented cost reductions offered by the system. The main goal of the Phase II project is to advance the design of the manifold element of the TM Otisco Ground-loop System so that it can be easily produced and packaged with the sale of geothermal heat pumps. The system will benefit the agricultural community and will help improve the sustainability and profitability of small and mid-size farms (USDA-NIFA Topic Area 8.12).The Phase II application will advance the design to improve upon the following three problems with the current state of the art.1. Significant drilling and excavation costs.2. Time and cost of ground-loop installation.3. The high level of effort and skill for current state-of-the-art. The Phase II application proposes the following technical objectives.1. Research additive or subtractive manufacturing processes for the manifold component of the TM Otisco Ground-loop System to identify a production approach that is more cost-effective can be installed more quickly and meets the performance requirements of the overall system.TM 2. Through the installation operation and testing of the Otisco Ground-loop System at the two demonstration/prototype sites under this grant and drawing on the experience from the Phase I installation develop documentation to be used in the future to reduce the time and cost of installation.3. Verify performance of the systems through up-front thermal conductivity testing and measurement of operational parameters (i.e. temperature differentials and amp draw of heat pump and fluid pumps) to enable calculation of the coefficient of performance of the system.