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A new apartment complex is currently being built in the center of Sint Michielsgestel with stores on the first floor. Geothermal heat is being used to heat the complex. For the construction of the underground pipe system, which extracts the heat from the deeper layers of the earth, Eco-Well is carrying out the soil drilling. This involves the use of an almost fully automatic drilling rig and Bobcat machines for the logistics of materials on the construction site.
Eco-Well b.v. is a young and rapidly growing company that designs and installs closed well systems for geothermal heating systems. A source system consists of a double polyethylene pipe through which flows a mixture of water and glycol, which absorbs and releases the temperature of the soil. At the construction site in Sint Michielsgestel, 19 well systems were planned with a depth of about 200 meters. The diameter of a well is no more than about 15 centimeters. About three wells were drilled per day. In the well, the ground temperature is about 15 degrees, which can be raised to about 55 degrees with the help of an overhead heat pump; enough to comfortably heat homes and stores. The cooled liquid is then pumped back underground to reheat and so the system continuously circulates heat and cold. In summer, the process can be reversed, as the ground temperature is actually lower than the outside air and the system can be used to cool the apartments.
A new, almost fully automatic drilling rig was used for the project in Sint-Michielsgestel, which drilled wells at the marked locations. The machine is operated remotely and can screw new segments onto the drill pipe by itself, allowing the drilling process to continue continuously. During drilling, water is pumped into the well under pressure to prevent, the walls of the well from collapsing. When the desired drilling depth is reached, the drill pipe is raised and automatically unscrewed. The material that rises during drilling is neatly disposed of in piles next to the drilling rig via a filter unit at the rear of the drilling rig. Once the borehole is clear, the soil collectors are brought in by a Bobcat machine. These are large reels with polyethylene pipes, which are lowered into the hole using a weight. Later in the construction process, they are connected to the geothermal heating system with the heat pump. Often the heat pump is also accompanied by a buffer tank for storing hot tap and shower water.
Bobcat machines are used not only for sizing, coiling and transporting the pipes for the wells on large reels, but also for transporting materials and water tanks on the construction site. Initially, E88 excavators from Bobcat were used for this purpose. Eco-Well owns five of them. The older, hand-operated drilling rigs did not yet have a filter unit, so the wet drilling mud that was hauled up was collected in containers to dry out and keep the site more walkable. Those containers were emptied using the excavators. For other work, attachments such as pallet forks and hose reels were used.
The new, automatic drilling rigs feature a shaker screen, which ejects the drilling material clean and dry onto the ground next to the rig. Because containers no longer need to be shoveled out, Eco-Well recently purchased T76 skid-steer loaders, which do the same job as previously the E88 excavators. But skid-steer loaders have some additional advantages compared to the excavators: because the new drilling rigs are quite a bit longer, an E88 no longer fits on the flatbed trailer hauling the machines. The T76 tracked loader is shorter and thus does fit on the flatbed together with a drilling rig, keeping the transport costs the same. In addition, the T76 is more maneuverable and faster, and with its lower weight and tracks, it disturbs the soil on the construction site much less than the relatively heavy E88 excavator.
Recently, the T76 tracked loaders have been equipped with a remote control, allowing the logistical work on the construction site to be carried out by the drillmaster himself. He is already used to working with a remote control, as the drilling rig is also controlled and operated by remote control. Young operator Rick de Zomer is very excited about using the new T76.
Eco-Well b.v. is a young company that was founded in 2018 and has grown rapidly since then. The number of employees has quickly grown to 30 and the order book is well filled thanks to the increasing popularity of geothermal heating systems. Initially, the machines were rented, including from 123 Rental, a sister company of Inter-Techno, which is a dealer of Bobcat. That Eco-Well later bought its own Bobcat machines was not automatic. “Not only are the owners involved in purchasing machines, but also the drill masters who have to work with them. They are not real machinists who use the machines continuously. They are really only a tool for their actual work: drilling wells. We rented and tested various brands of machines in the early days, but Bobcat simply came out on top,” says Jos Over, who as one of the founder/owners is responsible for the machines, the workshop and maintenance.
“Conditions on the construction site are quite difficult due to the wet drilling mud. Electronics are very sensitive to that and some brands often gave failures as a result. Bobcats are robust, say lout-proof machines, which continue to do their job under all conditions.” And he is very satisfied with Inter-Techno's support. “For example, they advise on adapting the machines. Maintenance technicians are also quickly on site when needed, so the work can always continue.”
