GEOTHERMAL

ENERGY
Layers of Earth:
• Crust
• Mantle
• Core
CORE:
 Inner most layer of earth.
 Temperature is at about 4000°C.
 Heat is mainly produced by radioactive decay of various isotopes
and the original heat produced from the formation of earth.

MANTLE:
 Core is surrounded by the Mantle.
 Mantle consists of semi fluid material (hot molten rocks) is
called as Magma.
 Temperature is mostly above 1000°C

CRUST:
 The outermost layer of earth is known as crust.
 It has average thickness of about 30km made of rocks.
 The temperature of crust is increases with the depth at a rate of
30°C/km.
• Geothermal energy originates from the earth’s interior in the form of
heat.

• The entire heat content of the earth’s crust upto a depth of 10 km

above 15°C is defined as the geothermal resources.

• The geothermal resource of the earth is estimated to be more than

2.11 x 1025 J, which is equivalent to 109 MTOE.(Enough to supply
our earth energy needs for more than 3,50,000 years).

• Although the amount of geothermal energy within the earth is very

large, useful geothermal energy is limited to certain sites only, as it is
not feasible to access and extract heat from a very deep location.

• The geothermal energy which is available near the surface and which
is relatively more concentrated is considered as feasible site. These
sites are known as GEOTHERMAL FIELDS.
 MORE FAVOURABLE GEOTHERMAL SITES

• In earth crust (outer most layer of earth) at certain locations anomalies

exists in the composition and structure (faults and cracks).
• There are region in which hot molten rock (magma) of the mantle has
pushed up through the faults and cracks towards the surface [ACTIVE
VOLCANO]
• Most of the crust is made of impervious rocks. But at some locations the
crust is made of porous rock. They are known as HOT SPOTS which are
occur at moderate depts of 2 to 3 km where the heat of magma is
conducted upward through an overlying rock layer.
• These anomalies of earth crust is mostly found in the location of high
tectonic activities, high seismic zone, volcanic activities zone, regions
having thin earth crust.
• The earth crust consists of six major plates and a number of small plates.
The geothermal belts are associated with the junction of major tectonic
plates.
• In those regions temperature gradient is as high as 100°C/km is found.
Most of the earths geothermal sites are located near the edges of the pacific plate
(THE RING OF FIRE)

Geothermal sites are also located at mid ocean ridges, interior continental rifts and
locations having deep sedimentary basins
 Criteria for choosing potential geothermal sites
Most geothermal reservoirs are deep underground with no visible clues showing above
ground. But geothermal energy sometimes finds its way to the surface in the form of:
• Volcanoes and fumaroles
• Hot springs/Geysers
Geothermal Potential assessment
Geothermal Potential assessment
Geothermal Potential assessment
Geothermal Potential assessment
APPLICATIONS OF THE GEOTHERMAL ENERGY:

1) DIRECT HEAT USE:

Most of the geothermal resources produce low-grade heat
(GEYSERS) at about temperature range of 50 to 70°C, which
can be used directly for the thermal applications viz., space
and water heating, industrial applications like drying of food,
chemical, textile industries, warming fish ponds in
aquaculture and soil and space heating of green houses in
agricultural applications.

2) ELECTRIC POWER GENERATION:

In some locations geothermal resources produce
temperature > 90°C, which can be used for generation of
electricity.
Main advantages of Geothermal Energy:
i) It is reliable and cheap sources of energy.
ii) It is available for 24 hours per day
iii)Its availability is independent of weather.
iv)It has inherent storage feature so no extra storage
facility is required.
v) It requires little land area.
vi)Feasibility of modular approach represents a lot
of opportunities for development of relatively
quick, cost-effective geothermal projects.
Main disadvantages of Geothermal Energy:
i) It is site specific – There are not too many places where you
can build a geothermal power station.
ii) Generally, energy is available as low-grade heat.
iii) Geothermal fluids also bring with it dissolved gases and solute
high as 25 kg/m3 which leads to air and land pollution.
iv) Drilling operation leads to noise pollution.
v) The available thermal energy cannot be distributed easily over
long distances (longer than 30 km)
vi) Corrosive and abrasive geothermal fluid reduces the life of the
plant.
 GEOTHERMAL
RESOURCES

Hydrothermal Geopressured Hot Dry Rock Magma

Resources Resources Resources Resources

Dry steam Wet Steam

system system

High Low Hot water

Temperature Temperature system

Single Flash Binary Fluid

System system

Dual Flash
System
1) Hydrothermal Resources:

Hydrothermal Resources occur when underground water has access

to high temperature porous rocks, caped by a layer of solid
impervious rock.

Heat from magma is conducted to the porous rocks. When

underground water has access to the hot porous rocks, it get heated
up.

When there is any fissures in the rock, the hot water comes outside
forming hot springs or geysers.

Sometimes the water is heated as high as 350°C. Thus produces

steam. This steam escapes through the cracks in the surface it is
called fumaroles.
In order to utilize the
hydrothermal energy wells
are drilled either to
intercept a fissure or more
commonly into the
hydrothermal reservoir.

The hydrothermal
resources are located at a
distance approximately
100m to 4500m.

Temperature range is from

90 °C to 350 °C
Hydrothermal system is again classified
into :

i) Vapour dominated (Dry Steam System)

ii) Liquid dominated (Wet Steam System)

i) Vapor Dominated (Dry steam system)
• Dry steam fields occur when the pressure is not much above atmospheric
pressure and the temperature is high

• In Dry Steam fields, water boils underground and generates steam at

temperatures of about 165 °C and pressure at about 7 atm.

• Steam is extracted from the well, cleaned in a centrifugal separator to remove

solid matter and then piped directly to a turbine.

• The exhaust from the turbine is condensed in a direct contact condenser with
cooling water.

• The resulting warm water is circulated and cooled in a cooling tower and
returned to the condenser.

• Excess water is reinjected at some distance deep into the ground for disposal.

• The non-condensable gases are removed from the condenser by steam jet
injection
ii) Liquid Dominated (Wet steam system)

Dry steam fields occur when the pressure is very high above
atmospheric pressure and the temperature is high or low. Even
though the temperature is high, since pressure is high the water
remains in liquid state.

Liquid dominated system can be further classified into,

1. Liquid dominated – High temperature system (T > 175 °C)
where Steam Flash system is used.
2. Liquid dominated – Low temperature system (T<175 °C) where
Binary Fluid system is used.
Liquid dominated – High temperature system

In such reservoirs, the temperature and pressure are around 200 °C and more
than 40 atm pressure respectively with depths at 600 m to 1400 m.

a) Single Flash System:

When water is bought to surface and pressure is reduced, rapid boiling occurs
and it flashes into steam and hot water.

The stem is separated and used to generate electrical power and remaining
highly saline hot water can be used for direct heat and then reinjected into the
ground.

b) Dual-flash steam system:

In dual flash steam system, the stem is flashed a second time from the
remaining hot fluid in the first stage, separated and fed into the duel inlet
turbine or into separate turbines. Efficiency upto 8% can be achieved.
 Liquid dominated – Low temperature system
(Binary Fluid Hydrothermal system)
• These resources are available at moderate temperature ranges of 90°C to 175°C. This
temperature is not enough to produce flash stem.

• In this type of power plant, the geothermal water is passed through a heat exchanger
where its heat is transferred to a secondary liquid, namely isobutene, iso-pentane or
ammonia–water mixture present in an adjacent, separate pipe.

• The secondary liquid should have lower boiling point (10 °C) than water.

• It turns into vapor on getting required heat from the hot water.

• The vapor from the working fluid is used to rotate turbines.

• The binary system is therefore useful in geothermal reservoirs which are relatively low
in temperature gradient.

• Since the system is a completely closed one, there is minimum chance of heat loss. Hot
water is immediately recycled back into the reservoir.

• The working fluid is also condensed back to the liquid and used over and over again.
Advantages of Binary system

i) They almost avoided the corrosion, scaling and

environmental problems as the geothermal fluid
circulates through a closed cycle and all the fluid is
reinjected.

ii) In many cases they are capable of higher conversion

efficiencies than flash steam plants.
 Liquid Dominated – Hot water system

• These resources are available at low to moderate

temperature ranges of 20 °C to 150 °C and can be
used to provide direct heat for residential and
industrial uses.
• The hot water is brought to the surface where a heat
exchanger system transfers its heat to another liquid
(liquid or air).
• The resource can be directly used if the salt and solid
content is low.
 2. GEOPRESSURED RESOURCES

• While drilling for oil and gas, hot water resources at moderately high temperature (90 °C to

200 °C) and under very high pressure of 1350 atm are found at the depth of 3 to 6 km. These

resources are referred as Geopressured.

• Because of high pressure, such geopressured water consists of high amount of dissolved

methane gas (1.9 – 3.8 m3 per m3 of water)

• This resource is very promising because we can extract three types of energy from the wells:

– Thermal energy from heated fluid

– Hydraulic energy from the high pressures involved

– Chemical energy from burning the Methane gas.

 3. HOT DRY ROCK RESOURCES (HDR)
• These are regions underground at temperature exceeding 200 °C, with little or
no water.
• The rocks are impermeable and / or there is no surface water in the vicinity.
• Such resources upto a depth of 5 km are estimated to be significant because
HDR are much more common than hydrothermal reservoirs.
• The heat recovery from HDR involves forming a manmade reservoir by
drilling deep into the hot rocks and then cracking it to form cavity (hydraulic
fracturing) or fractures. Such syste is known as Enhanced Geothermal System
(EDR)
• Hydraulic fracturing is performed by pumping of water at high pressure into
the rock formation.
• To recover heat, water is pumped into the cracks from the surface and
withdrawn by another well at a distance.
• Injection and production and production wells are joined to form a circulating
loop through this man made reservoir to achieve steady flow of high
temperature water or water steam mixture.
• When heat is extracted, the rock cools down the new cracks are developed due
to temperature gradient.
 4. MAGMA RESOURCES

• At some resources, molten or partially molten rock

(magma chamber), at temperatures of 650 °C to
1200°C occurs at depths of 5km to 10km. These
resources are located especially in the vicinity of
recent volcanic activity.
• Very high temperature and large volume make
magma a huge potential energy source, the largest of
all geothermal resources.
• However, successful magma drilling technology has
not been established yet.
OTEC
 Introduction
• Oceans cover more than 70% of Earth’s surface
and capture a large part of the sun’s heat.
• Estimate shows that the amount of energy that
can be practically harvested to be in the order
of
3 to 5 terawatts of base load power generation,
without affecting the temperature of the ocean
or the world’s environment.
The technology is viable primarily in equatorial areas where the year-round
temperature differential is at least 20°C (36°F).
 Working principle
• OTEC uses the ocean’s warm surface water with a temperature of
around 25°C to vaporize a working fluid, which has a low-boiling
point, such as ammonia.
• The vapor expands and spins a turbine coupled to a generator to
produce electricity.
• The vapor is then cooled by seawater that has been pumped from
the deeper ocean layer, where the temperature is about 5°C (41°F).
That condenses the working fluid back into a liquid, so it can be
reused.
• The efficiency of the cycle is strongly determined by the
temperature differential. The bigger the temperature difference, the
higher the efficiency.