CX 7002- Energy

Engineering

Unit I – Energy Resources

Geothermal Energy
Introduction
 Thermal energy contained in the interior of
the earth.
 Enormous and will last for several millions
of years and is therefore renewable.
Important Aspects
 Form of Energy: Thermal energy in the form of hot
water, steam, brine mixture of these fluids.
 Availability: Available deep inside the earth at a
depth more than about 80 km. hence not possible to
extract.
 In few locations, deposits are at depths of 300 m to
3000 m. Such locations are called geothermal fields.
 Method of Extraction: Deep production wells are
drilled in the geothermal fields.
 Hot steam/water/Brine is extracted from the
geothermal deposits by the production wells by (i)
pumping or by (ii) natural pressure.
 Geothermal fluids: (i) Hot Water (ii) Hot Brine (iii)
Wet Steam (iv) Mixture of above.
Applications
 Space heating
 Air conditioning
 Process heat
 Medical therapy
 Mineral extraction
 Agricultural water
 Aquaculture water
 Desalination plants
Advantages and Disadvantages
Advantages:
 Cheaper, compared to fossil fuels.
 Delivers greater amount of net energy from its system.
 Least polluting.

Disadvantages:
 Overall efficiency for power production is low.
 Withdrawal of large amounts of steam or water from
hydrothermal reservoir may result in surface subsidence.
 Drilling operation is noisy.
Geothermal energy deposits
(i) Hydrothermal:
 Deposits of hot water and steam at about 3000 m.

 Hot water, hot brine and steam can be extracted from

such deposits by means of production wells.
(ii) Petro Geothermal Energy resources (Hot Dry
Rock):
 Hot dry rocks at temperature around 200 °C and
depth about 2000 m form important deposits of
geothermal energy.
 There are two wells used: (i) Production wells (ii)
Injection wells.
 Water is pumped in through injection well into hot
dry rock fracture. The injected water collects heat
from the hot dry rock and forms a deposit of hot
water and steam.
 Production well is used to extract the hot water and
steam from geothermal deposits.
Geothermal electric power
plants
 In conventional thermal power plants, the heat is
obtained by combustion of fossil fuels.
 In geothermal electric power plants, the heat is
extracted from the geothermal fluids via. Deep
production wells.
1. Production Well: Geothermal fluids, such as hot
water and steam, are brought to the surface and piped
into the power plant.
2. Power Plant: Inside the power plant, the geothermal
fluid turns the turbine blades, which spins a shaft,
which spins magnets inside a large coil of wire to
generate electricity.
3. Injection Well: Used geothermal fluids are returned
to the reservoir.
Classification and types of
Geothermal power plants
 Classified based on (i) Type of Geothermal fluid (ii) Type of
thermodynamic cycle (iii) Type of turbine.

Type of Plant Geothermal Fluid Type of turbine

Vapour dominated Dry steam at 200 °C Steam Turbine
Geothermal power
plant
Liquid dominated Hot water and wet Steam Turbine
flashed steam type steam
Liquid dominated Hot Geothermal Organic fluid gas
binary cycle brine at T<150°C turbine
Type of Plant Geothermal Fluid Type of turbine

Liquid dominated Hot Geothermal Special turbine

total flow type brine driven by hot
geothermal brine
Petrothermal Hot water and Steam turbine
power plant steam from
production well
Hybrid Geothermal Hot water at T = Conventional
fossil fuel power 70 - 150°C steam thermal
plant power plants
 Power plants use steam from geothermal wells to make
electricity.
 The steam is used to spin turbines.
 The turbines spin magnets in coils of copper wire to make
electricity.
 The power plants are built close to the wells.
 The steam is pumped straight from the wells to the power
plants.
Environmental Aspects
 Fluids drawn from the deep earth carry a mixture of gases
(CO2 and H2S). These pollutants contribute to global
warming, acid rain etc.
 In addition to dissolved gases, hot water from geothermal
sources may contain trace amounts of dangerous elements
such as mercury, arsenic and antimony which, if dumped
into rivers, is hazardous.
Summary
 Geothermal energy resources are in the form of (i) Hot water
(ii) Hot brine (iii) Steam (iv) Mixture of above.
 The resources are found at different depths.
 Temperatures of geothermal fluids vary between 50°C to
280°C.
 Geothermal deposits upto 1500 m depth are suitable for
extraction through production wells.
 Geothermal power plant converts thermal energy into
electrical energy.
 Wells upto 3 km are considered to be economical.