Inexhaustible heat source — REICH Report Nr. 2/2021

REICH relies on the earth when it comes to heating. The entire company is heated with geothermal energy. And cooled too - depending on the season. The use of geothermal energy makes both possible.

Geothermal energy is a renewable energy and has become indispensable for our supply as an environmentally friendly source of heat. We also rely on solar energy and generate electricity with our photovoltaic systems. But unlike the sun, geothermal energy has an unbeatable advantage: It is always available and inexhaustible. Directly below us. In 2012, we drilled 105 metres deep into the earth to install a geothermal heating system for REICH and now generate energy geothermally.

Perfect conditions are actually found at a depth of 125 metres i.e. it is warmer, which would have been even more advantageous for an effective geothermal heating system. So why didn’t we just drill deeper? Because of Bochum’s past in the mining industry, drilling deeper into the ground was not possible, but even with the twenty-metre short-fall in drilling depth, a functioning geothermal heating system is assured. That’s what we were advised in 2012 when we built our new hall. We coordinated the drilling for the new geothermal heating system with the construction work. And the geothermal planners in charge were right.

Due to Bochum’s past in the mining industry, it was not possible to drill deeper into the ground

Heating, cooling, saving
Thanks to the probe boreholes, in which plastic pipes are inserted vertically into the ground, the higher temperature at depth is used to heat the building by means of a heat transfer fluid transported to the surface. The heat pumps then feed it into our heating system. In winter, we use the geothermal heat gained in this way for heating, and in summer to cool our hall for assembly and shipping. This works because in the cooler winter months thermal energy is extracted from the warmer ground. In summer, the ground is cooler, so cooling is achieved by using the thermal energy.

The ventilation system in the assembly and shipping hall works in the same way as in the rubber production via a heat exchanger. However, the preheated supply air is further heated in the assembly and shipping hall because the temperatures are lower than in the rubber production - the vulcanisation presses make it warmer there.

Geothermal energy is much more sustainable than conventional heating methods, but the heat pumps required consume significant amounts of electricity. Here we can balance this out to a great degree using our own photovoltaic systems. For our energy supply, we at REICH look both upwards towards the sun and downwards - deep into the soil of Bochum, in which we are firmly rooted as a company.