Focus su cicli integrati geo-bio e geosolare

Bagnore 15/07/2016
Marco Paci
Technical Support O&M Geothermal

Geothermal Boosting
Geothermal boosting by means of other fuels is not something totally new.
Most of the evaluations since past century dealt with geothermal steam superheat by fossil fuels.
A few geothermal hybridizations with other renewable sources were developed in the last years:

BIO + GEO

GEO + SOLAR

(Honey Lake, California USA)

(Enel Green Power at Stillwater, Nevada USA)

Geothermal hot brine used to preheat

combustion air and to dry wooden feedstock.

Hot demi water circulating in a CSP plant is

used to increase the operating temperature of
the geothermal brine feeding the Organic
Rankine Cycle geothermal plant.

(Enel Green Power at Cornia 2, Tuscany IT)

Geothermal steam is superheated throught
biomass combustion.

A PV plant is installed at Stillwater, too. Its

production curve helps matching the shape of
the energy demand from public, making the
project very appealing for Utilities.

Cornia
Plant + Biomass
Cornia22:Hybrid
Geothermal
Rationale
Cornia
2 project, an old idea waiting for the right moment
The site is located in Tuscany in the Cornia River valley, close to the Tyrrhenian coast
Availability of Cornia 1 site, a decommissioned power plant very close to Cornia 2
Cornia 2 working below the rated power (12,1MW vs 20MW) due to geothermal steam conditions
Availability of biomass (wood) in the surrounding area
High efficiency expected by synergy between Geo and Bio
Economical incentives
Electrical connection available

Cornia 2: Geothermal + Biomass

Geothermal Power Plant Scheme

Power generation Single flash power plant

Cornia 2: Geothermal + Biomass

Geothermal Power Plant. Thermodynamics

Single flash
thermodynamics

Flashing process: isenthalpic (h1=h2)

Separation process: isobaric (p2=p3=p4)
Turbine expansion process: wt = h4 - h5
Isentropic turbine efficiency:

Cornia 2: Geothermal + Biomass

Schematic Process Flow

Biomass (wood)
Flow rate 5.4 t/h

Superheater
Rated power 15.67 MWt

Super Heated
Geothermal
Steam @370C

Cornia 2.
Power
production

Geothermal Steam
Flow rate 110t/h
@153C and 5,5barA
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Cornia 1.
Steam
superheating

Power Unit
Power gross output = 18MW
Power net output =16.5MW
6

Cornia 2: Geothermal + Biomass

Biomass superheating section (15.9MWt)
The superheater of Cornia 2 has
three countercurrent flow sections
(SH1, SH2 and SH3) where flue gas
and geothermal steam flow.

A special design was required for the

geothermal steam superheater, as no
steam generation section was
required and characteristics of the
geothermal steam are not usual for
boiler design.

Design:
Steam flow110 t/h; Steam is superheated from 153C to 370 C.
7

Cornia 2: Geothermal + Biomass

Thermodynamics

Steam superheating effect is visible looking at the red transformation (steam superheating and expansion)
8

Cornia 2
2:Hybrid
Geothermal
Plant + Biomass
Cornia 2 project, an old idea waiting for the right moment

Cornia 1.
Steam
The site is located in Tuscany insuperheating
the Cornia river valley, close to the Tyrrhenian coast
The right opportunity arrived:
There was a decommissioned power plant, Cornia 1, very close to Cornia 2
Cornia 2 was working below the rated power, 12,1MW vs 20MW, due to some changes in the
geothermal reservoir
Electrical connection available
Availability in the surrounding area of biomass (wood)
Possibility for a better efficiency from the synergy between Geo and Bio
Economical incentives from the Italian State

Cornia 2.
Power
production
9

Cornia 2: Geothermal + Biomass

Efficiency increase
The hybrid plant has a better efficiency thanks to:

Increase of the thermodynamic cycle efficiency

Lower consumption of auxiliaries

This can be shown comparing the power output of two stand alone plants (Cornia 2 before repowering
+ Bio with the same thermal input like Cornia 2) with Cornia 2 Hybrid
Gross Power (MW)
Cornia 2 before
Geo + Bio (15.67 MW heat input) repowering
Stand alone
12.1

Auxiliaries (MW)

Standard biomass
power plant

Total

Cornia 2 before
repowering

Standard biomass
power plant

3.8

15.9

0.8

Net Power (MW)

14

+18%
Cornia 2 hybrid

18

18

1.5

16.5

+2.5MW

By burning 15,67 MWth, an increase of net power from 12,1-0,8 MW to 16,5 MW is achieved
leading to a theoretical (16,5-11,3)/15,67=33% net efficiency,
much higher than a 5 MWe biomass plants (22%) and the only geothermal power plant (13%).

10

Cornia 2: Geothermal + Biomass

Economical Inventives

Although the very high efficiency, in the present Italian energy market a hybrid bio-geo power plant still
needs incentives to be economically viable. Cornia 2 took advantage of the following:
The project won a call, managed by Tuscany administration, promoting innovation in renewable
energy
Italian law has an incentive scheme to promote the renewable energy development.
A special chapter is dedicated to the so called combined plants Geothermal Biomass.
In particular, only the biomass quota benefits from incentive scheme
The biomass contribution is extrapolated from the total production through a formula based on the
efficiency increase:

= 1

, !"#$%&

- ./0

, '()#*+("%&

An additional bonus is recognized for the achievement of an emission level below a certain target.
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Cornia 2: Geothermal + Biomass

Emission limits and recorded values
3

CONCENTRATIONS (mg/Nm )
@ 11 % O2 dry gas
LIMITS
POLLUTANT

RECORDED
VALUES

AUTHORIZATIONS

DM
06/07/2012)

Dust

10

10

0,05

Total Organic Carbon (COT)

30

20

0,81

Carbon Monoxide (CO)

120

150

40

Sulphur Dioxide (SO2)

140

150

NOx (as NO2)

200

150

130

15

0,8

Ammonia (NH3)

Control of emissions is key.

Pollution has to be limited for environmental
protection and to access the Italian incentive
scheme, which promotes the application of
technologies able to achieve target limits
lower than the law limits.

Gaseous pollutants are controlled through a careful combustion management (temperatures,

oxygen) and chemical reactions (injection of urea and hydrated lime).
Biomass plant is equipped with a dust removal system consisting of cyclonic filters and bag filters

12

Stillwater: Geothermal + Solar

General overview

CSP

Geothermal project is a 30MW net, two units, binary

cycle power plant (2009).

A 22 MW,AC PV project (2012) shares the

transmission lines and the general step up
transformer with the geo to deliver electrical power to
the grid.

The Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) plant is

integrated to the geo gathering system, delivering
17MW of thermal power collected from the sun
irradiation to the geothermal brine at the inlet of the
binary plant. The result is a higher inlet temperature
resulting in better thermodynamic conversion of heat
into electrical power.

PV
22 MW

Stillwater site map

Stillwater: Geothermal + Solar

Site Layout Rendering

Stillwater site map

Stillwater (NV-USA) geothermal binary plant

Design data
STILLWATER PLANT
2 Units in parallel
Total net power 33.6 MW at design point

Unit 1
Hot Air
(84 F)

Air Cooled
Condensers

Turboexpander 1-2
261 F ; 455 psia

1556 kph

To Unit 2
Cool Air (53.7 F)

Turboexpander 1-1

Hot Air
(84 F)

261 F ; 455 psia

Hot Brine

7255 kph
310 F

1556 kph

Cool Air (53.7 F)

Demister
Vaporizer

84 F ; 61,5 psia

Production Wells

Accumulator

Cold Brine

7255 kph
157.5 F

Pre-Heater 2

Pre-Heater 1
3113 kph ; 88 F ; 495 psia

From Unit 2
Injection Wells

Isobutane feed pumps

Stillwater: Geothermal + Solar

CSP Plant
Project Size: 17MW,thermal @900W/m2 irradiance
Solar Field Technology: parabolic trough, no thermal
Storage
Heat Transfer Fluid: Demineralized Water
Maximum HTF Temperature: 390 F
Brine temperature increase = 15 F
Solar to thermal efficiency (at design) 75 %
Annual net thermal output 30,000 MWh,th
Annual net electric additional output 3,000 MWh

First collector array placed in operation, August 2014

Stillwater PV project
Main data (1/2)

Main Project Data

Location
Installed Capacity I Ph.
Installed Capacity II Ph.

Stillwater, Nevada
23.8 MWDC
2.4 MWDC
26.2 MWDC

/ 20 MWAC
/

2 MWAC

/ 22 MWAC

Technology

Solar Photovoltaic, Polycrystalline

No. of Inverters

11.2 MWAC units

Equivalent Hours

1 734 h

CAPEX

69.98 MUSD

Net Generation

43 GWh/year

Nationalities involved

Stillwater PV project
Main data (2/2)
Project Milestones

Actual

Start construction

07/2011

COD I Phase

12/2011

COD II Phase

02/2012

Plant Technical Features

PV Modules
Site Surface Plan
Cable

88 825
118 [acres]
19 [km]

Aggregate man hours

129 411 [h]

Peak Workers on Site

223 per day

Records:
The first-ever hybrid geothermal-solar power plant
Fifth largest PV Installation for power generation in the USA
The largest EGP Solar Facility

Stillwater PV project
Construction phase (1/2)

Assembly of the panels on the structures

Stillwater PV project
Construction phase (2/2)

View of the inverter pad underground conduit and final inverter container setting

Stillwater PV project

View of the PV Strings and Solar Field in front of the

Geothermal Power Plants Air Cooled Condensers

Stillwater PV project
Combined Geothermal / Solar Power Production
Combined Solar and Geothermal Production
45

Combined Production
40

35

30

Output
(MW)
25

20

15

10

Geothermal Production

The power production curve

matches the shape of the
demand from public making the
project very appealing for
Utilities from a PPA point of view

Thanks for attention!

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