Geothermal Energy
• The word geothermal comes from the Greek words geo (earth) and
therme (heat).
• So, geothermal energy is heat from within the Earth. We can recover this
heat as steam or hot water and use it to heat buildings or generate
electricity.
• Geothermal energy is a renewable energy source because the heat is
continuously produced inside the Earth.
[Link]
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How is Geothermal Energy Generated?
• Temperatures hotter than the sun’s surface are continuously
produced inside the earth by a slow decay of radioactive particles
• The most common method that scientists use to find geothermal
reservoirs is drilling a deep well and testing the temperature deep
underground.
• Steam or very hot water from deep within the earth is piped to the
surface and used as a heat source or to produce electricity.
• Earth’s kinetic energy is converted into electricity.
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Energy Efficient and Cost Effective
• According to the
EPA, geothermal are
the most energy
efficient, cost
effective, and
environmentally
clean systems for
temperature control
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Uses and Goals
• Heat pumps – heat and cool building; melt snow from
roads and sidewalks
• Direct use applications – greenhouses, heat water for
fish farming, pasteurize milk, food dehydration, gold
mining
• Power plants – produce electricity
• Help mitigate global warming
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How is Geothermal Energy Generated?
• Temperatures hotter than the sun’s surface are
continuously produced inside the earth by a
slow decay of radioactive particles
• People around the world use geothermal
energy to produce electricity and heat their
homes by digging deep wells and pumping the
heated water or steam to the surface
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Where is Geothermal Energy Found?
• Found along major plate
boundaries where
earthquakes and volcanoes
are concentrated.
– Geysers
– Hot springs
– Fumaroles
– Geothermal reservoirs
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Introduction:
The earth is a great reservoir of heat energy in the form of molten
interior.
The earth’s interior is made of a hot fluid called ‘magma’. The outer
crust of the earth has an average thickness of 32 Km and below that,
is the magma.
The average increase in temperature with depth of the earth is 1°C for
every 35 to 40 metre depth. At a depth of 3 to 4 Kms, water boils up
and at a depth of about 15 Kms, the temperature is, in the range of
1000°C to 1200°C.
If the magma finds its way through the weak spots of the earth’s
crust, it results into a volcano. At times, due to certain reasons the
surface water penetrates into the crust, where it turns into steam, due
to intense heat, and comes out in the form of springs or geysers. 7
Moreover, the molten magma also contains water, which it
releases in the form of steam, which could be utilized for
electric power generation.
The oldest geothermal power station is near Larderello in
Italy, which has an installed capacity of 380 MW.
In Newzealand geothermal power accounts for 40% of the
total installed capacity, whereas in Italy it accounts for 6%.
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Structure of The Earth’s Interior:
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Temperature schematic of inner Earth
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Different types of Geothermal reservoirs:
1) High temperature: In a deep granitic basement beneath a sedimentary cover (ratio units with
a thermal conductivity contrast promotes the geothermal gradient), cold water is injected and hot
water is extracted in such a way that in contact with a second surface circuit, it generates hot
steam for electricity production.
2) Middle temperature: Hot groundwater is drawn from a deep aquifer to exchange heat within
an urban district heating system, and cold water is re-injected.
3) Very low temperature: Ground thermal inertia is exploited through a buried heat exchanger
that provides a stable fluid temperature to heat a house in winter and cold it in summer.
4) Thermal spring: It is also represented on the picture a natural thermal convection half-cell
caused by a groundwater circulation process: Infiltration in a recharge zone, a slow transition
through a deep aquifer, quickly draining to the surface through a permeable fault giving way to a
thermal spring. 11
TYPES OF GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES:
Geothermal energy comes from the natural generation of heat
primarily due to the decay of the naturally occurring radioactive
isotopes of uranium, thorium and potassium in the earth.
Because of the internal heat generation, the Earth’s surface heat flow
averages 82 mW/m2 which amounts to a total heat loss of about 42
million megawatts.
The estimated total thermal energy above mean surface temperature
to a depth of 10 km is 1.3 x 1027 J, equivalent to burning 3.0 x 1017
barrels of oil.
Moreover, the molten magma also contains water, which it releases
in the form of steam, which could be utilized for electric power
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generation.
Moreover, the molten magma also contains water,
which it releases in the form of steam, which could
be utilized for electric power generation.
The depth of geothermal resources occur due to:
(1) intrusion of molten rock (magma) from depth, bringing
up great quantities of heat.
(2) High surface heat flow, due to a thin crust and high
temperature gradient.
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(3)Ascent of groundwater that has circulated to
depths of several kilometers and been heated
due to the normal temperature gradient.
(4)Thermal blanketing or insulation of deep rocks by
thick formation of such rocks as shale whose
thermal conductivity is low.
(5)Anomalous heating of shallow rock by decay of
radioactive elements, perhaps augmented by
thermal blanketing.
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Geothermal Resource Types:
Resource Type Temperature
Range(°C)
[Link] Resources
(a) Hot water Up to 100 °C
(b) Wet steam(Superheated water from
highly pressurized underground 350 °C +
reservoirs)
[Link] dominated resource 240 °C
[Link] dry rock resource 90 to 650 °C
[Link]-pressured resource 90 to 200 °C
[Link] resource > 600 °C
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Vapor dominated systems:
It produce steam from boiling of deep, saline waters in low
permeability rocks. These reservoirs are few in number, with The
Geysers in northern California, Larderello in Italy and Matsukawa in
Japan being ones where the steam is exploited to produce electric
energy.
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Water dominated systems:
It is produced by ground water circulating to depth and ascending
from buoyancy in permeable reservoirs that are a uniform
temperature over large volumes. There is typically an up flow zone
at the center of each convection cell, an outflow zone or
plume of heated water moving laterally away from the
center of the system, and a down flow zone where
recharge is taking place.
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Sedimentary basins:
It produce higher temperature resources than the surrounding
formations due to their low thermal conductivity or high heat flow
or both producing geothermal gradients >30˚C/km.
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Geopressured resources:
It occurs in basin environments where deeply buried fluids
contained in permeable sedimentary rocks are warmed in a normal
or enhanced geothermal gradient by their great burial depth. The
fluids are tightly confined by surrounding impermeable rock and
bear pressure much greater than hydrostatic.
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Principle of Operation:
First step needed is to extract the geothermal energy from steam,
hot water and hot rocks from Earth's crust.
The success of this process depends on how hot the water gets,
and water temperature depends on how hot were rocks to start
with, and how much water is pumped down to these rocks.
The water is pumped down through an „injection well“, it passes
through the cracks in these rocks and then comes back up again
through a „recovery well“ towards the surface, and because of the
great pressure water is transformed into a steam when getting to
the surface.
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Principle of Operation:
This created steam then needs to be separated from brine what is
usually done in central separation chamber. After this process of
separation is over, complete steam is transferred to heat
exchangers which are located inside the power plant.
After steam is transferred to heat exchangers it’s possible to
transfer it even further to the steam turbines where it can be
generated into electricity, and in the same time through the
exhaust pipes unused energy is being released.
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In heat exchangers steam is being cooled under the pressure in
condensate and after that heat is transferred into cold water in
condensate heat exchangers.
This cold water that is gained on this way gets pumped from
wells to storage tanks from which is transferred to heat
exchangers where water's temperature gets increased and then
passes through condenser where it boils and where released
oxygen and other gases that could cause corrosion (when being
heated) are removed by final water cooling.
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Geothermal Power Plants
• Require high temperatures
(300 F – 700 F)
hydrothermal resources that
may either come from dry
steam wells or hot water
wells
• There are three types of
geothermal power plants:
1).Dry steam plants,
2). flash steam plants, and
3). binary cycle power plants
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Dry Steam Plants
• Use steam piped
directly from a
geothermal reservoir
to turn the turbo-
generator
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Flash Steam Plants
• Takes high pressure hot
water from deep inside the
earth and converts it to
steam to drive the
generator turbines
• When the steam cools it
condenses into water and is
injected into the earth to be
used over and over again.
• Most geothermal plants are
flash steam plants
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Flash Steam Power Plants are the most common form of geothermal power
plant. The hot water is pumped under great pressure to the surface. When it
reaches the surface the pressure is reduced and as a result some of the water
changes to steam. This produces a ‘blast’ of steam. The cooled water is returned
to the reservoir to be heated by geothermal rocks again.
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Binary Cycle Power Plants
• Transfers the heat from
geothermal hot water to
another liquid.
• The heat causes the
second liquid to turn to
steam which is used to
drive a generator
turbine.
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Geothermal Power Plant Piping
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Geothermal Power Plants and the
Environment
• Geothermal power plants do
not burn fuel to generate
electricity so their emission
levels are very low
• Release less that 1% of
carbon dioxide emissions of a
fossil fuel plant
• Use scrubber systems to clean
the air of hydrogen sulfide
• Emits 97% less acid rain-
causing sulfur compounds
than fossil fuel plants
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Advantages
• Very high efficiency/high net yield
• Very reliable (runs 24 hrs. a day)
• Very clean – no air pollution or GHGs
• Renewable and sustainable
• Conserves fossil fuels
• Can help decrease dependence of foreign oil
• No transportation involved
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Disadvantages
• Can’t provide our current energy needs
• Can only be used in certain geologically active
areas
• Water contains minerals that can be corrosive
and difficult to dispose of safely
• Harmful gases can escape from deep within the
earth
• Piping system requires large areas of land
• Initial costs can be high
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GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
Trapping the Earth’s Internal Heat
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Larderello power plant
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Indirect Condensing Cycle While developing Larderello power
plant, it was thought, that geothermal steam may corrode the
turbines.
Therefore, an indirect system was adopted, which involved the use
of a heat exchanger by means of which clean steam was raised
from contaminated natural steam .
In spite of the fact that about 15% to 20% of the steam power
potential had to be sacrificed in the heat exchanger, the cycle was
considered economical, because of the recovery of minerals and
non-condensible gases from the new steam.
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Indirect Condensing Cycle
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Direct Non-Condensing Cycle This is the simplest, cheapest
and most widely used geothermal cycle. Bore steam, either direct
from dry bores, or after separation (using centrifugal separator)
from wet bores, is simply passed through a turbine and exhausted
to atmosphere.
There is a need for utilizing the heat available from the high
temperature (about 1000°C) layers of the earth.
It has been suggested that water should be pumped into artificial
volcanic craters and then turned into useful steam. Like hydro
power stations, geothermal power plants are unattended and do
not need full time supervision.
Since the units are unattended, the warning alarm can be
transmitted to the attended station where appropriate action can
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be taken.
Direct Non-Condensing Cycle
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Dry Steam Power Plant:
The dry steam power plant which is used to generate power
directly from the steam generated inside the earth.
In this case, we do not need additional heating boilers and
boiler fuel, as steam or water vapor fill the wells through rock
catcher and directly rotates the turbine, which activates a
generator to produce electricity.
This type of power plant is not common since natural
hydrothermal reservoirs dry steam are very rare.
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Flash Steam Power Plant :
The most common type of geothermal power plant, flash steam
plants use waters at temperatures greater than 360F.
As this hot water flows up through wells in the ground, it is
collected in a flash tank where drop in pressure causes the liquid
to boil into steam.
The steam is separated from the liquid which is then used to run
turbines which in turn generate power. The condensed steam is
returned to the reservoir.
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Binary Steam Power Plant :
This type of plant uses high temperature geothermal water to heat
another fluid which has a lower boiling point than water.
This fluid vaporizes to steam, drives the turbines, then condenses
to liquid to begin the cycle again.
The water, which never comes into direct contact with the working
fluid, is then injected back into the ground to be reheated. Since
the most resources are with lower temperature the binary steam
power plants are more common.
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