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GEOTHERMAL POWER PLANT

In Greek, Geo means earth and thermos means heat. Thus, geothermal energy comes from the heat
of the earth.
The heat source is the magma which comes close to the earth’s surface in some places. The heat in
a geothermal system can be harnessed in the form of steam or with water as the medium.

 Four elements compose a geothermal system, namely:

1. A heat source, which is the magma that comes close to the surface of the earth in volcanic areas.
2. A permeable underground reservoir rock which can hold or store water.
3. Solid cap rocks which maintains pressure and does not allow the heat, water or steam to escape.
4. Water, which serves as the medium for carrying the heat.

 Geothermal sources
1. Hydrothermal fluids basically made up of hot water, steam and minerals, it is the only form of
energy currently being tapped for significant commercial heat and electric energy.
2. Geopressurized brines this represents a special subset of hydrothermal fluids typically found
at depths exceeding 3 km and is characterized as hot water existing at pressure above the
normal hydrostatic gradient and containing dissolved methane.
3. Hot dry rock this is a water-free, impermeable rock at high temperature and practically drilling
depth to extract energy, high pressure water may be injected through one or more wells to
create new to enhance existing natural fracture system with limited access to ground water
flow.
4. Magma this is characterized by molten or partially molten rock with temperatures reaching as
high as 12000C.

 Applications of Geothermal energy

1. Electric power generation geothermal energy available at temperature above 1500C is most
suitable for electricity production.
2. Space heating and cooling the most famous space-heating project, serving about 100,000
households is the Reykjavik municipal heating project.
3. Industrial application includes preheating, washing, cooking, peeling, evaporating, drying and
refrigeration.
4. Agriculture applications includes greenhousing, aquaculture, soil warming and biogas generation.
5. By products certain compounds such as boron and calcium chloride can be recovered from
geothermal fluids as by-products.

 Harnessing Geothermal Energy for Electricity Production

Deep holes are drilled down to the reservoirs and pipes are inserted in these holes. The mixture
of hot water and steam, under its own pressure, will flow up the pipe.
Upon reaching the surface, the water and stream go through a separator which sends the steam
by way of a pipeline to the power plant, passing through the scrubbers and catalyst to make it clean
pure as possible. The hot water, on the other hand, is sent via another pipe to a re-injection well where
the water is sent back to the geothermal reservoir.
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The powerful natural steam, still under pressure, is directed into the power plant it spin the
blades of a turbine. Attached to the turbine is a generator, tightly coiled wire cylinder that rotates in a
field of magnets surrounding it.
This rotation process generates electricity, and the electric current is then sent from the
transmission lines into homes, offices, factories and schools.

 Types of Geothermal Plants

1. Dry or superheated Steam geothermal source is vapor-dominated ( characterized: dry or

superheated steam); steam directly runs the turbine.

Dry or superheated
steam
To reinjection wells

2. Separated steam or single flashed geothermal source is hotwater dominated ( characteristic:

mixture of steam and hotwater); employs the use of steam separator; re-injects hotwater, steam
goes to turbine.

Separator

Mixture
To reinjection wells To reinjection wells

3. Separated steam/hot water-flash or doubled-flashed flasher is employed and located at the

hotwater-end of the steam separator; purpose is to further extract the steam which were not
extracted in the separator; such as steam is then directed to the turbine’s low-pressure side.

Separator HP LP

Mixture Flasher
To reinjection wells

To reinjection wells
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4. Single-flashed with pumped well employs down-hole pump in production well for better steam
recovery.
Flasher
Separator

Down-hole pump in
production well
To reinjection wells To reinjection wells

5. Binary geothermal plant like the binary mercury-steam cycle, it uses two working fluids, one is
the steam from the production well, the other is feedwater, the heat exchagers serves the function
of the boiler.
Heat
Exchanger

Hot water

To reinjection wells

 Geothermal Plants in the Philippines

1. Tiwi-Albay Geothermal Power Plant

Location: Albay 330 MW
2. Makiling-Banahaw Geothermal Power Plant
Location: Los Baños, Laguna 425.7 MW
3. Tongonan Geothermal Power Plant
Location: Leyte 112.5 MW
4. Pilinpinon-Dauin Geothermal Power Plant
Location: Negros Occidental 202.5 MW
5. Mindanao Geothermal Power Plant
Location: Kidapawan, Cotabato 52 MW

 Environmental Impact
1. Disturbance due to civil works, including cutting trees in forested areas, consequent soil erosion
and possible impact on biodiversity.
2. Possible contamination of water resources, lakes and rivers, with geothermal effluent containing
natural chemicals leached out from rocks by geothermal hot water as it drawn up to the surface.
3. Emission of carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide and other non-condensable gases which maybe
harmful at certain concentrated levels.
4. Noise pollution during well discharge, testing and even operations of small non-condensing power
plants.
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 Performance of Flashed Steam Geothermal Power Plant

T
3 ms
mg 1
1 h =c
2 6 3
4
2
6 5
5 4
mw

1. mass flow rate of steam entering the turbine, ms S

throttling process 1-2
h1 = h2 = hf2+ x2hfg2
ms = x2mg
where: x2 = quality after throttling
mg = mass flow rate of ground water
2. turbine work, Wt
Wt = ms ( h3 – h1 ) t where: t = turbine isentropic efficiency
3. generator power output, EP
EP = Wtg where: g = generator efficiency
4. heat rejected in condenser, Qc
Qc = ms ( h4 – h5 )
5. overall plant efficiency, o
Wt
o = m (h - h )
g 1 0

Sample Problem
A flashed-steam geothermal power plant is located where underground hot water is available at 15 MPa and
300oC.To produce a steam-water mixture in the separator where the unflashed water is removed, this water
is throttled to a pressure of 1 MPa. The flashed steam which is dry and saturated passes through the steam
collector and enters the turbine at 1 MPa and expands to 0.10 MPa. The turbine efficiency is 80% and the
generator efficiency is 95%. For generator output of 12 MW, Calculate:
a. the ground water flow rate in kg per hour required for continuous operation.
b. the number of wells to be drilled if a well is capable of supplying 45 300 kg/hr.
c. the overall thermal efficiency.
Solution:

from CATT table:

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@ state 1: @ state 2:
P1 = 15 MPa P2 = 1 MPa
T1 = 300˚C hf2 = 762.8
h1 = 1337 hg2 = 2778

since, h1 = h2 = hf2 + x2hfg2

1337 = 762.8 + x2(2778 - 762.8)
x2 = 0.285

@ state 4:
P4 = 0.1 MPa s3 = s4 = 6.586
s3 = s4 = sf4 + x4sfg4 ; 6.586 = 1.303 + x4(7.359 – 1.303)
x4 = 0.87

h4 = hf4 + x4hg4 = 417.4 + 0.87(2695 – 417.4) = 2386.83

a. the ground water flow rate in kg per hour

generator output = ms (h3 – h4) ηt ηg ; 12×103 = ms( 2778 – 2386)(0.88)(0.95)

ms = 40.36

ms = x2mg ; mg = = × = 509,810

b. no. of wells =

Generator output 12 x 103

c. overall thermal efficiency = η0 = mg (h1- h0) = (141.61)(1337- 104.87) × 100 = 6.66 %