SALVADOR, Joshua B.

ME22/A4
2018152029/CE-3 February 19, 2021
ASSESSMENT TASK 10
1. Age of the Earth
• Lord Kelvin is a prominent scientist known for his contribution of knowledge about
the possible age of the Earth. Many famous scientists doubted his assumption and
considering it as invalid. This is due to the fact that Lord Kelvin’s assumption
doesn’t include the consideration of heat activities (convection) present beneath
the Earth’s surface. As new technologies continue to emerge, new discoveries that
contradict Kelvin’s assumption are being known throughout the world.

2. Earth’s Ideal Location for Geothermal Activity

• If you are looking for ideal location for geothermal energy, you should look for areas
located near the major tectonic plates’ boundaries. These areas are where we can
find numerous volcanoes. One example of areas that are ideal for geothermal
activities is at the “Ring of Fire”. It is an area encircles the Pacific Ocean. Countries
located in the Ring of Fire are Japan, Philippines, North, Central, and South
America.

3. Rate of Increase of Temperature with Depth and its Geothermal Region

• As we dig deeper down the Earth’s surface, the temperature will rapidly increase.
According to some experts, the temperature increases by 25 to 30 degrees Celsius
per kilometer of depth. However, it doesn’t mean that the rate of increase of
temperature with depth is increasing as we move from one region to another. A
rate of increase of 15 to 30 degrees Celsius will be evident in the first 100 kilometer.
As we dig deeper into the Earth’s mantle, the rate of increase will increase abruptly.
As move closer to the core, the rate is slowly decreasing.

4. Heat Mechanisms for Geothermal Resource

• One of the heat mechanisms present in the extraction of geothermal energy is the
convection. Basically, this mechanism states that hotter fluids will tend to move
upward since they are becoming less dense. This is what happen during steam
extraction. Another thing is the conduction. Generally, pipes placed directly
beneath the ground will experience heat transfer from the hot material present
underground. This mechanism allows heat to transfer energy to the pipe’s
molecules and cause vibrations that will transfer heat from one molecule to
another.

5. Geothermal Water to Steam

• Geothermal water is found beneath the ground as is being heated by the Earth’s
core. As it rises above the ground, the water’s temperature will start decreasing.
This circumstance causes the water to become vaporized or converting its form
from hot water to steam.

6. Engine for Geothermal Energy

 • There are several engines known as an agent for the extraction of heat from
geothermal sources. These engines are:
a) Dry Steam – pipes are positioned directly beneath the ground and is
connected to turbines that allows steam from geothermal sources to be
extracted and convert it to a viable energy source.
b) Flash Steam – directly extract geothermal energy through hot water that
flows from the ground up to the Earth’s surface due to its high pressure.
c) Binary Steam – also uses how water in order to boil an organic compound
that power up a turbine in order to generate electricity.

7. Reinjection of Effluent Fluids

• In terms of reinjecting effluent fluids back to the reservoirs, it has several reasons
why we should pursue it and we should not do it. Starting for the reasons why we
should reinject effluent fluids back. First, excess hot water should be reinjecting
back instead of letting it flow to the Earth’s surface as it might bring harm. Second
is that reinject fluids back allows the restoration of balance in regards with the
pressure in reservoir. As per the reasons why we shouldn’t do it, first, it gives a
negative impact as it decreases the enthalpy in the reservoir. Second, reinjecting
the fluids back allows the increase in chloride which affects the scaling of silica.

8. Geothermal Energy vs Solar Energy

• As a grid operator, electricity generated from both geothermal and solar sources
are guaranteed to be clean as they are both renewable resources. The only
difference between these sources is on how energy is being collected. Both
possesses a distinct method of generating electricity from their own sources.
Machineries used for the energy generation is also different from one another.

9. Heat Source in the Ground

• GSHPs or ground-source heat pumps’ main function is to extract heat beneath the
ground. Based on its term, these machines are literally pumping heat beneath the
ground in order to supply heat energy for the society. Basically, there are series of
geothermal activity that is currently and continuously happening beneath the
ground. As we move dig beneath the ground, we can see hot materials such as
magmas. These are the molten rocks found beneath the earth. Rock are being
melted beneath due to the high temperature that is coming from the Earth’s core.
These are the main source of heat that we can found beneath the Earth’s surface.