Geothermal Energy

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

Prepared by

ARUNKUMAR H S

Asst.Professor

Mechanical and Manufacturing Engg Dept.

MIT,Manipal.

References:

1. Rai G. D., Non-Conventional Energy Sources, Khanna Publishers.

2. Rao S. and Parulekar B. B., Energy Technology, Khanna Publishers, 2004.

Important points
1. Vapor dominated (dry steam) system
2. Liquid dominated (wet steam) system
3. Binary cycle

TYPES OF GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES

There are four types of geothermal resources:
(1) Hydrothermal Resources,
(2) Geopressured resources,
(3) Hot dry rock (HDR) Resources or Petro-thermal Resources, and
(4) Magma Resources.

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At present the technology for economic recovery of energy is available for hydrothermal
resource only. Thus, this is the only commercially used resource at present. Other resources
are going through development phase and have not become commercial so far.
Hydrothermal Resources
Hydrothermal resources arise when underground water has access to high temperature
porous rocks, capped by a layer of solid impervious rock. Thus, water is trapped in the
underground reservoir (aquifers) and is heated by surrounding rocks. Heat is supplied by
magma by upward conduction through solid rocks below the reservoir. Thus, it forms a giant
underground boiler. Under high pressure, the temperature can reach as high as 350°C. The
hot water often escapes through fissures in the rock, and form hot springs or geysers.
Sometimes steam escapes through the cracks in the surface. These are called fumaroles. In
order to utilize the hydrothermal energy, wells are drilled either to intercept a fissure or, more
commonly into the hydrothermal reservoir as shown in Fig. below.

For practical purposes, hydrothermal resources are further subdivided into

(i) vapor dominated (dry steam fields),
(ii) liquid dominated (wet steam fields), and
(iii) Hot water resource.

Vapor dominated fields deliver steam with little or no water and liquid dominated fields
produce mixture of steam and hot water or hot water only. The system to utilize the energy
depends on the type of resource.
Vapor dominated (dry steam) system

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Dry steam fields occur when the pressure is not much above the atmospheric pressure and
the temperature is high. Water boils underground and generates steam at temperatures of
about 165°C and pressure of about 7 atm. The most important known dry steam fields are:
(a) "The geysers" regions in California, which may be the largest, (b) the Larder Ello and some
smaller areas in Italy, and (c) a small field (or fields) at Matsukawa, Japan.
As shown in Fig. below, steam is extracted from the well, cleaned in centrifugal separator to
remove solid matter and then piped directly to a turbine. The exhaust steam of turbine is
condensed in direct contact condenser, in which the steam is condensed by direct contact
with cooling water. The resulting warm water is circulated and cooled in cooling tower and
returned to the condenser. The condensation of steam continuously increases the volume of
cooling water. Excess water is reinjected at some distance deep into the ground for disposal.
The non-condensable gases are removed from the condenser by steam jet ejection.

Major differences compared to conventional thermal (steam) plants are as follows:

(a) The temperature and pressure in such plants are much less (about 165°C and about 7 atm)
compared to that in conventional thermal plants (where these are about 540°C and about
160 atm). As a result, the efficiency of this plant is much less; about 15%, compared to 35-
40% in case of conventional thermal plants.
(b) In conventional thermal plants, surface-cooling condenser is used as the condensed steam
is to be used as boiler feed water and therefore, condensate and cooling water are not

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allowed to mix. Whereas, in hydrothermal systems, steam is continuously supplied by the

resource, which allows more simple and efficient direct contact condensing.
(c) Hydrothermal systems produce their own cooling water, whereas, in conventional thermal
plants make up cooling water is required from an external source.
(d) In case of conventional thermal plants, the steam is not mixed with non-condensable
gases, which are to be removed from the condenser.
Liquid dominated (wet steam) system
Steam plants are the most technologically cost effective, when the resource temperature is
above about 175°C. Therefore, liquid dominated or wet steam fields are further subdivided
into:
(a) The flashed-steam system or high temperature (above 175°C), where steam plants
can be used, and
(b) The binary-cycle system or low temperature (below 175°C) fields where other
technologies are used.
(a)The flashed-steam system:
In high temperature liquid dominated reservoir, water temperature is above 175°C, however,
it is under high pressure and remains in liquid state. The most developed system of such a
type is found at Wairakei fields in New Zealand, where the reservoir temperature and
pressures are 230°C and 40 atm respectively, and depths are 600-1,400 m. When water is
brought to the surface and pressure is reduced, rapid boiling occurs and it "flashes" into steam
and hot water. The steam is separated and used to generate electrical power in the usual
manner. The remaining highly saline hot water (known as brine) can be used for direct heat
and then reinjected into the ground. In dual flash systems, the steam is flashed a second time
from the remaining hot fluid of the first stage, separated and fed into a duel inlet turbine or
into two separate turbines. The efficiency of such a plant is around 8%. The single and double
flashed systems are shown in Fig. below. These types of plants are being used at Salton Sea
in California, Dixie Valley in Nevada and other places in USA. Such systems are also being
implemented in Philippines and Mexico.

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(b) The binary-cycle system

These resources are available at moderate temperature range of 90-175°C. This temperature
is not enough for efficient flash steam production. A binary-fluid system is employed, where
the heat of geothermal fluid is used to vaporize a volatile organic fluid, such as isobutene (B.P.
10°C), under pressure in a primary heat exchanger. The geothermal fluid is reinjected after
extraction of heat. This vaporized fluid serves as working fluid for the turbine. The exhaust
vapor from the turbine is cooled in the regenerative heat exchanger and then condensed in a
condenser. The condensed liquid isobutene is returned to primary heat exchanger by way of
the regenerative heat exchanger. This system is shown in Fig. below. These plants do not
produce any steam condensate and have to rely on external source of cooling water or air-
cooling. Such plants are in use at East Mesa, Mammoth Lake in California and other places in
USA, Kawerau, NewZealand and many other places in the world. Presently some 200 MW
binary power plants are in operation worldwide.

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Main advantages of binary systems are:

(i) They almost avoid corrosion, scaling and environmental problems as the
geothermal fluid circulates through a closed-cycle and all the fluid is reinjected,
and
(ii) In many cases, they are capable of higher conversion efficiencies than flash steam
plants.

(c) Hot Water System or Total Flow System:

Hydrothermal reservoirs of low to moderate temperatures (20-150°C) can be used to provide direct
heat for residential and industrial uses. The hot water is brought to the surface where, a heat
exchanger system transfers its heat to another fluid (liquid or air); although the resource can be used
directly if the salt and solid content is low. The geothermal fluid is reinjected into the ground after
extraction of heat. The heated fluid transports heat to the place of use. Recent surveys have identified
a large potential for direct use geothermal applications. Energy of hot water resource can also be
utilized in a hybrid system consisting of geothermal-conventional thermal (fossil fuel or biomass
based) system. In this system, hot water resource is used to preheat feed water and/or air for
combustion. Geothermal heat replaces some or all of the feed water heaters, depending upon its
temperature. A 30 MW, geothermal-wood waste hybrid plant is in operation at Honey Lake, California
since 1989.

Geopressured Resources
While drilling for oil and gas, hot salty water (brine) reservoirs, at moderately high
temperature, (90-200°C), and under great pressure are found at a depth of 3-6 km. Because

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of the very high pressure of the water, up to 1,350 atm in the deepest layer, these reservoirs
are referred to as geopressured. A special feature of geopressured water is that it also
contains a significant amount of dissolved methane gas, usually 1.9-3.8 m3 per m3 of water.
The solubility of methane in water at normal pressure is quite low, but it increases with
pressure. When the water is brought to the surface and its pressure reduced, the methane
gas is released from the solution. Thus, methane can be extracted from brine by simple and
economical gravity separation technique. This re-source is potentially very promising because
three types of energy can be extracted from the wells: (i) thermal energy from the heated
fluids, (ii) mechanical (hydraulic) energy from the high pressures involved, and (iii) chemical
energy from burning of methane gas. The extent of geopressured reserves is not yet well
known worldwide, and the only major resource area identified to date is along the Texas and
Louisiana coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The belt is about 1,200 km in length along the coast,
and extends up to about 160 km inland and 240 km offshore. The potential of geopressured
resource of this area has been estimated as 23-240 GW for 30 years. Experimental wells are
already in place in Texas and Louisiana. A hybrid geopressured conversion unit (1 MW) was
successfully operated in 1990 as a demonstration unit. Studies are underway to identify
reservoirs with sufficient volume and permeability to sustain large water flows over long time
periods and the extent of dissolved methane gas.

Hot Dry Rock Resources or Petro-thermal Systems

There are regions underground at temperatures exceeding 200°C, with little or no water.
The rocks are impermeable and/or there is no surface water in the vicinity. Such resources
up to a depth of 5 km are estimated to be significant and worthy of development as a
source of energy. Hot dry rocks are much more common than hydrothermal reservoirs and
more accessible, so their potential is quite high. The recovery of heat from HDR involves
forming a man-made reservoir by drilling deep into hot rocks and then cracking it to form
cavity or fractures. This can be achieved by
(i) detonating high explosive at the bottom of the well,
(ii) nuclear explosion, or
(iii) Hydraulic fracturing.

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Hydraulic fracturing, which is performed by pumping of water at high pressure into the
rock formation, is commonly used in oil and gas fields to improve the flow. It appears that
the quantity of conventional explosives required would be uneconomically large, nuclear
explosives are associated with environmental and safety issues and therefore, hydraulic
fracturing seems to be more promising.
To recover heat, water is pumped into the cracks from the surface, and withdrawn by
another well at a distance. Injection and production wells are joined to form a circulating
loop, through this man-made reservoir to achieve a steady flow of high temperature water
(or water-steam mixture). Electricity can be generated by binary fluid system as shown in
Fig. below. When heat is extracted, the rock cools down and new cracks are developed
due to temperature gradient. Thus, the resource keeps on expanding. The technique was
tested at a location near Valles Caldera, USA, where fractures were made at a depth of
about 2.76 km. The temperature at the location was 185°C. Freon (R-114) was used as
working fluid for turbine in a binary system. Only 5% of the water introduced was lost in
the ground and small proportion of makeup water was required.

Advantages of Geothermal Energy

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1) It is a renewable source of energy.

2) By far, it is non-polluting and environment friendly.
3) There is no wastage or generation of by-products.
4) Geothermal energy can be used directly. In ancient times, people used this source of
energy for heating homes, cooking, etc.
5) Maintenance cost of geothermal power plants is very less.
6) Geothermal power plants don't occupy too much space and thus help in protecting natural
environment.
7) Unlike solar energy, it is not dependent on the weather conditions.

Disadvantages of Geothermal Energy

1) Only few sites have the potential of Geothermal Energy.

2) Most of the sites, where geothermal energy is produced, are far from markets or cities,
where it needs to be consumed.
3) Total generation potential of this source is too small.
4) There is always a danger of eruption of volcano.
5) Installation cost of steam power plant is very high.
6) There is no guarantee that the amount of energy which is produced will justify the capital
expenditure and operations costs.
7) It may release some harmful, poisonous gases that can escape through the holes drilled
during construction.

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