144 Geothermal Power Plants: Principles, Applications, Case Studies and Environmental Impact

7.4.2 Condensing and cooling tower processes; utilization efficiency

The working equations for the condenser, cooling tower, and the utilization efficiency
are the same as for the flash-steam plants already considered and will not be repeated.
The reader is referred to Sects. 5.4.5
5.4.7.

7.5 Example: Optimum wellhead pressure

This example will treat the problem of deciding on the optimum wellhead pressure for
a dry-steam plant receiving saturated vapor at the wellhead. As with the previous
examples, we will ignore pressure losses in pipelines. We will assume that we can con-
trol the pressure at the wellhead by means of a throttle valve. The well productivity
curve can be approximated as an elliptical equation in terms of the mass flow rate of
steam as a function of the wellhead pressure:


2
m_ 2 P
1 51 ð7:16Þ
_ max
m Pci
where m_ max is the maximum observed mass flow rate and Pci is the closed-in wellhead
pressure. This function is shown schematically in Fig. 7.13. Assuming that values for
these two parameters are available from well tests, the mass flow rate at any pressure
can be calculated from
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
m_ 5m_ max 1 2 ðP=Pci Þ2 ð7:17Þ
Opening the wellhead valve will result in lower pressures, and higher flow rates, but
the enthalpy of the steam will remain the same since it is a throttling process.
The effect of this operation can be seen in Fig. 7.14, a Mollier diagram for steam.
The turbine power is proportional to the product of the steam mass flow rate
and the enthalpy drop Δh (shown for an ideal isentropic process for simplicity).
There are two limits to the wellhead pressure: the closed-in pressure, Pci, for which
there is no steam flow, and the condenser pressure, Pc, for which there is no

Fig. 7.13 Dry-steam productivity curve.