Recovery of Thermal Energy from Wastewater by Heat Pump Technology

Eighty percent of the city’s per capita daily water consumption is discharged into municipal wastewater pipes. The temperature of discharged wastewater is higher than the ambient temperature in winter and lower than the ambient temperature in summer. This thermal energy stored in it can be recovered by the wastewater source heat pump to heat (area heating or hot water production) or cool the building. This chapter introduces the characteristics of wastewater, the principle and application of wastewater source heat pump, wastewater heat exchanger, low-cost decontamination technology, and other key aspects of wastewater thermal energy recovery. With the continuous application of wastewater source heat pumps in the world, although the wastewater heat recovery technology is continuously developing and progressing, the application problems currently faced and their broad prospects are also presented in this chapter.