GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

Geothermal comes from the Greek words geo (earth) and therme (heat). The
heat energy present in the interior of the earth is called geothermal energy. The
geothermal energy available from the Earth is potentially enormous. A United
States Government energy agency estimates that the total energy available from
global geothermal resources is approximately 15,000 times the energy contained in
all the known oil and gas reserves in the world. Unlike solar and wind energy, the
supply of geothermal energy is constant and doesn't vary with the time of day or
change with the weather.

STRUCTURE OF EARTH’S INTERIOR

The earth consists of series of concentric shells. Earth’s internal structure

can be divided in to three parts

(i) Crust
(ii) Mantle
(iii) Core

Figure: Earth layers

CORE

The center of the earth is called core and it consists of inner core and outer
core. The inner solid core is believed to contain nickel-iron alloy. Around the inner
core there exist outer core made of rock and iron in melted form due to heat. The
rock in melted form (liquid form) is called magma. In places, where magma is
close to the surface volcanoes may occur
MANTLE

The upper rigid portion of the mantle extends up to 100 km below the
separating crust and contains mainly iron and magnesium. The lower mantle
extending up to 2900 km below the earth surface is less rigid and hotter.

CRUST

The crust is the outer surface of the earth and can be divided in to
continental crust and oceanic crust

Continental Crust - the exposed thick parts of the Earth's crust under the
continents, (not located under the ocean). The average continental crust thickness
is 35 km. The maximum thickness is 90 km below Himalayas and the minimum is
25 km at its thinnest in various places.

Oceanic Crust - The part of the Earth's crust located under the oceans is called
oceanic crust and is thinner, only about 5 to 11 km thick.

HOW GEOTHERMAL ENERGY IS FORMED

Geothermal energy comes from two things,

 Primordial heat
 Radioactive decay.
Primordial heat comes from when the earth was formed 4.5 billion years ago,
from the energy created when masses from colliding cosmic matter happened.
Radioactive decay is from materials that were radioactive, materials which are
unstable undergoes release of ion along with heat energy spontaneously.
Radioactive decay is happening from the formation of earth and it still today
produces heat underground additionally with the earth’s core.

The Centre of Earth is around 6000 degrees Celsius which is hot enough to melt
rock. If we start from the earth´s surface and go down, the temperature rises about
17° to 30° Celsius per every kilometre.

GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES

The various Geothermal resources have been identified are as follows

(i) Hydrothermal convective resource
(ii) Geo-pressured resource
(iii) Petro-thermal or Hot dry rocks
(iv) Magma resource

HYDROTHERMAL CONVECTIVE RESOURCE

Hydrothermal resources are those in which the water is heated by conduction

of heat from hot rocks. When cold water percolates underground from large
surface area and circulates downwards, this water is heated by heat from hot rocks.

Based on the dominant product from hydrothermal resource they are further
subdivided in to
(i) Vapour-dominated fields
(ii) Liquid-dominated fields
 (iii) Hot-water fields

VAPOUR DOMINATED FIELDS

In these systems the water is vaporized in to steam that reaches the surface
as dry steam at about 200 deg cel. This steam can be used to drive the steam
turbine coupled with generator to produce electrical energy.

LIQUID- DOMINATED SYSTEMS

In liquid dominated reservoir, the water temperature is above the normal

boiling point. However it does not boil but remains in the liquid state because the
water in the reservoir is under pressure. When the water comes to the surface, the
pressure is reduced which leads to rapid boiling and the liquid water flash in to a
mixture of hot water and steam. This steam can be used to generate electric power.

GEOPRESSURED RESOURCE

Geopressured resource contains moderate temperature water or brine under

very high pressure. Because of the abnormal high pressure of water up to 1350 atm
in the deepest layer of earth, these reservoirs are referred to as geopressured
resource.
A special feature of geopressured resource is their dissolved content of
methane. When these resources are tapped by boring wells, three sources of energy
are available – thermal, mechanical and chemical energy

HOT DRY ROCKS

Hot dry rocks are hot solid rocks occurring at moderate depths of earth but
they do not have access to water, either because of low permeability of the rock or
because of the absence of ground water. In order to utilize the resource cold water
is introduced to hot dry rocks by breaking the impermeable rock and recovering the
resultant hot water for use at the surface. The temperature of hot dry rock varies
between 150 to 290∘C.

MAGMA RESOURCE

Magma consist of partially or completely molten rock with temperature

above 650∘C. These resources have large geothermal energy content, but they are
restricted to few locations. Furthermore the existing technology does not allow
recovery of energy from these resources because of high temperature.

HARNESSING GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

The geothermal energy can be harnessed in three ways, they are

(i) Dry steam
(ii) Flash steam
(iii) Binary steam

In dry steam method of harnessing dry steam at high temperature is

collected from the geothermal well and it can be used for power generation.
In flash steam method the hot fluid at high temperature and pressure is
collected and it flashes to steam while reaching the surface because of the
low pressure. This steam can be used for power production and
unevaporated hot fluid can be used for direct heat applications.

GEOTHERMAL ENERGY UTILIZATION

Geothermal energy can be used as given below

(i) Directly for heating
(ii) To produce electricity

DIRECT HEAT APPLICATIONS

The direct-use application of geothermal energy is primarily for direct

heating and cooling and normally uses geothermal resources with temperature
below 150˚C. The main categories for direct use applications are:

(i) Space heating

(ii) Agricultural applications
(iii) Aquaculture applications
(iv) Industrial applications

SPACE HEATING AND DISTRICT HEATING

Space conditioning includes both heating and cooling. Space heating with
geothermal energy has widespread application, especially on an individual basis.
Buildings heated from individual wells are popular in USA, New Zealand.
Geothermal space heating for such applications usually comes from geothermal
reservoirs at temperature ranging from 60∘C to as high as 150∘C. Space heating
may serve a single house in rural area, but in district heating geothermal well
serves whole area, towns or a city.
District heating systems distributes hydrothermal water through piping
system to blocks of buildings. The typical components of a district heating system
are a production facility, a mechanical system, and a disposal system.
Production system is usually a well to bring the hydrothermal water/heat energy
from the geothermal reservoir. A mechanical system is a system that delivers the
hydrothermal water/heat energy to the process. A disposal system is a medium/area
that receives the cooled geothermal fluid; it can be a pond, river, or an injection
well.

Figure: District Heating System

AGRICULTURE APPLICATIONS

In temperate and colder climates, plant growth is greatly improved by

heating soils, greenhouses this can be achieved by using geothermal heat.

Geothermal energy is used for green house cultivation. A suitable

temperature for agriculture production is maintained inside the green house during
winter where the outside temperature dips down to -25∘C. The most important
crops of heated greenhouse include several varieties of vegetables and flowers.

The soil heating system uses the floor of the greenhouse as a radiator for the
heat. Warm water is circulated through a tube buried in the floor of the greenhouse.
Then the heat is transferred from the warm water to the soil through the tube that
eventually will heat the air in the greenhouse. This system is usually used
complementary with other system because this system may give an excessive heat
to the plants. Non-metallic materials are preferable for the tube due to corrosion
and expansion problems with the metallic materials. The most popular material for
the tube is polybutylene.

AQUACULTURE APPLICATIONS

Aquaculture, also known as “fish farming”, is one of the primary uses of

geothermal energy, which improves the growth of fishes. Several countries report
the use of geothermal energy for aquaculture, the main ones being China, USA,
Italy, Iceland, and Israel.

INDUSTRIAL USES

Industrial applications mostly need the higher temperature as compared to

space heating, greenhouses and aquaculture projects. Examples of industrial
operations that use geothermal energy are: heap leaching operations to extract
precious metals, dehydration of vegetables, and pulp and paper processing.
Drying and dehydration are important moderate-temperature uses of
geothermal energy. Various vegetable and fruit products are dried with continuous
belt conveyors or batch (truck) dryers with air temperatures from 40 to 100 °C. A
variety of vegetable and fruit products can be considered for dehydration at
geothermal temperatures, such as onions, garlic, carrots, pears, apples and dates.
Another application of geothermal water is the drying of timber. In a typical
timber mill, after the tree has been cut and shaped into its desired form, it must go
through a drying process to prevent warping later on and to set the sap. Often times
drying kilns in smaller mills are heated by steam from conventional boilers.
Substituting geothermal steam for that created by the boiler would provide
substantial energy cost savings.

POWER PRODUCTION USING GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

Electric power from geothermal resources can be developed in the following

manner.
(i) Dry Steam Power Plant

(ii) Flash Steam System

(iii) Binary Cycle Power Plant

DRY STEAM SYSTEM

Dry steam from the geothermal well is collected filtered to remove unwanted
particles and flows directly to a steam turbine. This steam operates the turbine
coupled with generator and produces electric energy. The dry steam is at a
temperature of about 200∘C and 7kg/cm2 which are less than those in conventional
steam power plants. Thus the efficiency of geothermal plant is low as compared to
conventional steam power plants.
Exhaust from the turbine passes through a condenser and the water so
formed is re-injected in to the geothermal well ensure continuous supply of steam.
air and
water
generator vapour
turbine
condenser
cooling
steam tower
air air

water
hot
well
condensate

geothermal zone

production well injection well

(a) dry steam power plant

FLASH STEAM SYSTEM

In flashed steam system hot water from the geothermal well passes through a
flash chamber where a large part of the fluid is converted in to steam. Dry
saturated steam passes through the turbine coupled with the generator to produce
power. The unevaporated hot brine from the flash chamber and the turbine
discharge from the condenser are re-injected in to the geothermal well.
To improve the total efficiency of the system, hot water from flash chamber
and condenser can be utilized for direct heat applications before it is re-injected in
to the well.
BINARYCYCLE SYSTEM

Hot water from the geothermal well is circulated through a primary heat
exchanger. In heat exchanger the hot brine transfer its heat to the secondary fluid
flowing in the heat exchanger thus converting it in to superheated vapor. This
vapor drives the turbine coupled with generator to produce electric energy.
The exhaust vapor from the turbine is condensed with help of condenser and
cooling tower arrangement. The condensed fluid is re-circulated in to the heat
exchanger. In binary cycle there is no problem of corrosion of working
components such as turbine and condenser such problems are confined only to the
heat exchanger.