Geothermal Energy Application in Power Generation

Subha Mondal, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Aliah University, Kolkata,

Sudipta De, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata, India
India
©2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

2
Introduction 2
Conventional Geothermal Power Cycles
Dry Steam Geothermal Cycle
3
Flash Steam Geothermal Cycle (FSGC)
3
Single-flash geothermal steam cycle (SFGSC)
Multiple-flash geothermal steam cycle
Binary Geothermal Cycle (BGC) 6
Combined Flash Binary Geothermal Cycle (CFBGC) 8
Thermodynamic Performance Assessment 8
Some Recently Proposed Advanced Layout
8
Flash Steam Geothermal Steam Cycle (FSGC) With Ejector 11
Flash Geothermal Steam Cycle With Selfr-Superheating 12
Geothermal Heat Recovery Through Organic Flash Cycle (0FC) 13
Kalina Cycle Integrated with Thermoelectric Generator (TEG) 13
Conclusion and Future Outlook 14
References

Abstract for power

energy has emerged as one of the preferred renewable resources cycle flash
Because of larger potential and continuous flow, geothermal
technologies are also well established. The dry steam geothermal
generation. Geothermal heat-driven power generation employed
combined flash-binary geothermal cycle are the conventionally
steam geothermal cycle, binary geothermal cycle andgeneration. Working principles of these conventionally employed geothermal
thermodynamic power cycles for geothermal power Besides these conventional cycles, a few recently reported advanced layouts of
chapter.
power ycles are summarized in the present relevant techno-economic outcomes.
geothermal power cycles are also presented with

Nomenclature
Specific exergy (kI/kg)
Ep Exergy destruction (kW)
E, Exergy loss (kW)
Ep Exergy product (kw)
h Specific enthalpy (kI/kg)
m Mass flow rate (kg/s)
mCu Geo-fluid flow rate (kg/s)
(kg/s)
imsp Secondary fluid flow rate
S Specificentropy (kJ/kg K)
WNET Net power output (kW)
WTr Turbine power output (kW)
Wp Pump power input
(Dimensionless)
x Vapor quality
Greek Symbol
n Efficiency (Dimensionless)
Subscript
I lst law
in Incoming stream
Out Outgoing stream
I| 2nd law
S Pu Steam pump
SF Pu Secondary fluid pumpP

dou10.1016/B978-0-323-93940-9.00161-4 1
Sustainability,and the Environment
Encyclopedia of Renewable Energy,
 Geothermal Energy Application Power Generation
2

Steam turbine
S Tur
Secondary fluid turbine
SE Tur
1-13, i, j, State points
0 Dead state

Key Points
. Different conventional geothermal power cydes are identified.
"e Working principles of these thermodynamic cydes are presented.
Mathematical models are developed to estimate relevant thermodynamic performance parameters.
" Afew recently reported advanced layouts of geothermal power cycles are also summarized.

Introduction

Due to the greater reliabiliy and economical operations, fossil fuel-based power plants are stillsatisfying the majority of the global
demand for electricity. According to the report published by IEA (2021), the global electricity demand is expected to grow by 5%
in the year 2021 and by 4% in 2022. In the year 202 1, fossil-fuel fired power plants are expected to satisfy approximately 45% of
the global electricity needs. It is also expected that fossil fuel-fired power plants will cater to about 40% of the additional electricity
demand in 2022. The global carbon footprint is needed to be substantially reduced to keep the global temperature rise with in the
specified permissible limit of the P'aris Agreement (2015). Since fossil fuel-fired power generation units are the largest contributors
to the globally emitted greenhouse gases, the percentage of carbon-neutral renewable electricity generation should be considerably
increased. Smaller capacity and ransient nature are twO major drawbacks of most of the renewable energy resources.
Geothermal resources are often available in a larger capacity. Ageothermal reservoir is also capable of supplying thermal energy
at aspecified temperature over a longer period. Thus, the geothermal power plant is a viable choice for meeting a community's
base load eletricity needs (DiPippo, 2005). Ahigher initial investment, silica scaling, and risk of hydrothermal eruption are some
adverse issues usually faced by a geothenal power plant. Ilowever, geothermal power plants are still preferred due to their
uninterrupted operations and larger capacities.
It is necessary to note that it was Ginori Conti who first time proposed to produce power using geothermal steam. In 1913, Italy
developed the first commercial geothermal power generation unit with a rated capacity of 250 kW (Azhar et al., 2022). Efficiencies
and capacities of geothermal power plants have increased substantially over time. The established capacity of geothermal based
electricity generation was about 12.7 GW in the year 2014 (Bertani, 2016). Bertani (2016) also forecasted that about 21 GW of
electricity would be generated from geothermal resources in the year 2021. Globally installed capacity of
generation would reach 140 GW if EGS (Enhanced geothermal sources) and other geothermal power
taken into consideration. If only conventional hydrothermal resources of non-conventional geothermal resources are
worldwide installed geothermal plants would be about 70GW by 2050. geothermal energy are considered, the rated capacity of
The present chapter describes the working principles of different
conventional power cycles employed for geothermal heat
recovery. Recently reported studies indicated that the energy conversion
cycles could be enhanced appreciably through some minor efficiencies of different conventional geothermal power
suggested modifications to different conventional geothermalmodifications. Thus, some recently proposed advanced layouts and
power cycles are also summarized in this chapter.

Conventional Geothermal Power Cycles

Dry steam geothermal cyde (DSGC), flash
binary geothermal cycles (CFBGC) are steam geothermal cycle (FSGC), binary geothermal cycle (BGC) and combined flash
suitable geothermal power cycle greatly conventionally employed to produce electricity from geothermal resources.
note hat these conventional depends on temperature,
geothermal power cycles are widely quality and quantity of the available geo-fluid. It isSelection of a
applied matured technology. necessary to
Ory Steam Geothermal Cycle
As vapor-dominated
geothermal heat fromgeothermal fields usually
such geothermal resources.produce steam with a very high dryness
ocurring vapor-dominated geothermal fields. However, it is necessary to note that therefraction, DSGCs are suitable to
is a very limited number of recover
of the Larderello in Italy, Geysers in the USA, naturally
nearly vapor-dominated geothermal field. The globally installed capacity of the and Matsukawa in Japan are some examples
2863 MW. This constitutes about 22% of the global capacity of geothermal inpower plant operating in DSGC is
geothermal power units operation (Martínez et al.,
2020).
 Cnergy Appiicatuon n

Vapour

Geo-fluid Demister
Steam
2
Turbine
To cooling tower

i, 1

Liquid
Cooling
Water water

Pump

Entropy
Production Injection
Well well

Fig. 1 Layout and associated T-s diagram of the dry steam type geothermal power cycle.

For running a DSGC, steam should beavailable between 180°C and 300°C, and the desirable quality of the available steam should
be above 0.99 to reduce the chances of scaling and erosion of the turbine and piping materials. When high-enthalpy geothermal
water exits the production well in a vapor-dominated geothermal field, it flashes into high-quality steam due to a sudden drop in
pressure.
Fig. 1depicts the simplifhed layout and temperature-entropy (T-s) diagram of a DSGC. It appears from Fig. 1that geo-fluid
coming out of the producion well (at state-i) is first allowed to pass through the demister to separate solid particles from the
geo-fluid. Then the almost dry steam coming out from the demister is allowed to expand (process 1-2) in a condensing turbine
generating electricity. Steam exiting the condenser after being condensed (process 2-3) is injected into the injection well (at state-j).
A pump is used to generate the re-injection pressure.
The Ist law (or thermal) efficiency of a DSGC usually varies in the range of 50-60% (Dilippo, 2005). It is worth noting that
dry-steam geothermal power plants, due to their simple structure and high energy conversion efficiency, ensure the most
economical operation of all types of geothermal power generation units.

Flash Steam Geothermal Cycle (FSGC)

FSGCare suitable for recovering heat from high and medium enthalpy hydrothermal resources. Due to the wide availability of
high and medium temperature hydrothermal resources, geothermal power plants operating in FSGCconstitute more than 60% of
the capacity of the installed geothermal power plants worldwide (Martínez et al., 2020). FSGC can be further classified based on
the number of flashing stages.

LSingle-tlash geothermal steam cycle (SFGSC)

The SFGSC is one of the preferred technologies for geothermal heat recovery due to its simple configuration. t constitutes more
than 40% of the capacity of globally operated geothermal power plants (Martnez et ad. 2020). Fig. 2represents the layout and
temperature-entropy diagram of the SFGSC. Ahydrothermal resource usually delivers the geo- fluid either as the saturated liquid or
as vapor with a very small dryness fraction. The high-pressure geothermal water exiting the production well is directed to the flash
chamber (FC) (at state-i), In the FC, the geo-fluid gets convered into two phase vapor (or the qualiy of the geo-fluidvapor
increases) due to the reduced operating pressure afer the throttling process (ie, procesi-1). The steam exiting the FC at adry
saturated state (at state: 2) expands in the turbine and generates the secondary energy (ie, the electricity). The low pressure steam
eiting the turbine (at state 3) is condensed in the condenser. lIsually. awater-cooled condenser along with acooling tower is
employed, Apump is employed to pressurize the condensate exiting the condenser (at state-4) o the lashing pressure. Water exits
the pump at asub-cooled state (at state-5) and mixes with the saturated water mass delivered by the tlash chamber (at state-6).
After the miingprocess, the entire water mass is directed to the injection well (at state j).The condenser cooling water is cooled by
air in the cooling tower before the re-circulation.
It is necessary to note that with the reduced flash pressure, the quality of two-phase steam increases. It ensures a larger steam
flow rate across the steam-turbine. However, with a reducing flash pressure, the enthalpy change associated with each kg of steam
flowing through the turbine reduces. Due to these two counteracting effects, the output power of the single-flash steam cycle
attains the peak value at a specificpressure of the flash chamber.
 4 Geothermal Energy Application in Power Generation

Sat. vapour

Geo-fluid 2

1 Steam
turbine 3
Flash
chamber
Sat.
liquid Condenser To cooling tower

Mixer
Cooling
Water water
pump

Production
well Injection
well

Fig. 2 Layout and T-s plot of Entropy

the single flash geothermal steam cycle.
Multiple-flash
Various
geothermal steam cycle
recently published studies have shown that
increased by increasing the number of flash the power output and
might be enormously increased stages. exergy efficiency of geothermal flash
by Ratlamwala and Dincer (2012) steam cycles can be
reported that the exergy efficiency
in the Sabalan
geothermal field, by adopting five flashing stages instead of single flashing. Jalilinasrabady et al. (2012) of aFSGC
generation could be enhanced to 47employing a double flash
geothermal steamn cyle (DFGSC) instead of a showed that
Prieto geothermal field would yield MW from 31 MW. Acoording to Martúncz et al. SFGSC, the electricity
maximum of 36.667 MW power output. 102.112 MW of secondary energy. A (2020), the DFGSC operating in the Cerro
SFGSC
field of Dieng to aDFGSC, Pambudiet al. (2015) showed that by operating thethe same geothermal field yielded a
in
geothermal about upgrading
It is
necessary note that
to 19.97% higher power could be achieved. currently operating SFGSC in the
associated with the operation of with an increasing
the steam flash cyclenumber of flash stages, technical complexities as well as
constitute about 20.12% of the capacity of increase., Thus, flashing financial burdens
only 1.44% of the same
(Martinez geothermal power plants operatingbeyond
et dl., 2020).
the 3rd stage is not
usually adopted. DFGSCs
worldwide triple-flash steam cycles
and
The simplified layout and constitute
Fig. 3that hot associated temperature entropy (T-s) diagram of the
geothermal
FC. Steam expands in HP water delivered by the DFGSC are
production well undergoes flashing (i.e., appended in Fig. 3. It is evident from
the LP FC for a second stage turbine as it
exits the HP FC (at state-2). process i-1) in the high-pressure (HP)
flashing
allowed to mix with the mass of process (i.e., process 4-5).Saturated water from the HP FC
The saturated steam mass that (at state-4) is permitted to go to
steam undergoes a second stagetwO-phase steam exiting the HP (urbine (at
of expansion process
exits
state-3). After the process of the LP FC (at state-6) is
mixing,
(represented process 7-8) in the LP turbine. A the entire mass of
by
steam-condenser is
 Generation 5
Geothermal Energy Application in Power

2
Sat. vapour
LP steam
turbine
Geo-fluid

HP steam
turbine
HP flash
chamber 6
Sat.
liquid Sat. vapour
Mixer

To cooling
tower

LP flash
chamber

11

10 Cooling
water

Mixer Water
pump

Production
Injection
well
well Temperature

1 5

10

Entropy

of a double flash
geothermal steam cycle.
Fig. 3 Layout and T-s plot exiting the condenser
(exiting at
of the LP steam turbine. The condensate the LP FC (at state
of
condense the exhaust steam that comes out with the saturated water that comes out
employed cool the
to
employed to allowed to mix state-j). A cooling tower is
pressurized by a pump (to state-10) and injection well (at
the
water mass is injected into
state-9) is
total
11). After the mixing, the
condenser cooling water.

the capacity of the

Binary Geothermal Cycle
(BGC)
MW, and this constitutes about 14.16% of the geo-fluid
BGCs installed worldwide is close to 1790
secondary fluid-cycle for recovering heat from
The total capacity of (Martinez et al., 2020). A
BCGC uses a
geothermal power plants. 180 °C(Pazal and Kamran, 202). presented in Fig. 4, It appears
Rankine Cycle (ORC) as pre
available between 107 and a subcritical
is Organic fluid vapor generator and
employed secondary fluid cyclewell (at state-i) is directed through the organic working fluid to a
Most commonly exiting the production heat the low boiling point organic vapor generator to
fromFíg. 4, that geo-fluid used in the pre-heater to further in the
from the geo-fluid is working fluid is heated the
heater. The rejected heat (represented by process 1-2). The organic expanding heated organic fluid vapor exiting
condition produced by turbine (at state-4 ) after being
saturated liquid output power is
(i.e., the state-3). The fluid vaporexiting the
generate dry saturated vapor in the secondary fluid turbine. Exhaust organic 1). Colder geo-fluid exiting the pre-heater is fed to
vapor generator (at state-3) recovery pressure (i.e,, state-
pressurized back to heat
condensed (process 4-5) is
the injection well,
 6 Geothermal Energy Application in Power Generation

Geo-fluid 3
Evaporator
|Secondary fluid (SF) SF turbine

Pre-heater 3

Entropy

Fig. 4 Layout and T-s plot of the binary geothermal power cycle.

Subcritical binary Transcritical binary cycle

cycle with superheating
Supercritical
Superheating heating

Subcritical
cooling
Entropy
Entropy
Fig. 5 T-s plots of subcritical binary cycle with
superheating and transcritical binary cycle.
Some of the secondary working fluids are
diagrams make positive /isentropic slopes. Isopentane,designated as dry fluids as their saturated vapor lines in
any dry working fluid is used as the butane, R245fa, R1234yf, etc., are a few examples of temperature entropy
dry working fluids. If
secondary working fluid, usually super-heating is not
degrees of super-heating are encouraged to needed a shown in Fig. 4. However, for
wet working fluids such as ammonia, a few as
exiting the secondary fluid turbine. maintain desirable quality of the vapor
It is necessary to note that
besides
transcritical ORC, the pressure of the subcriticalfluid
ORCs, a transcritical ORC cycle can also be used as
the secondary fluid cycle. In a
of the secondary fluid occurs belowsecondary is kept above its critical
pressure during its heating
the critical pressure. Usually, a
low critical temperature working process. However, cooling
transcritical power cyde. During the heat recovery, fluid is used
heat exchanging fluids (i.e., the geo-fluid and a transcriticalcycle results in a
good match between the temperature for the
and the transcritical secondary fluid cycde are organic fluid). T-s diagrams of the Subcritical secondary fluid cycle with profiles of
presented in Fig. 5. superheating
Coprbined Flash Binary Geothermal Cycle (CFBGC)
By integrating a SFSCand a
can be ensured. Such an secondary fluid cycle (most commonly ORC) in single unit higher overall energy
integrated power cycle is usually utilization efficiency
saturated geo-fluid mass generated due called
it is observed that a CFBCC. Fig. 6is showing the
to the layout of such a cycle. From Fig. 6.
vapor generator and pre-heater of the flashing of steam in the SFGSC (at state-6) is directed
saturated geo-fluid as it passes through secondary fluid cycde. The
the evaporator and the secondary working fluid is heated (process 9-10-11) by the
through the
vapor of thesecondary fluid expands (shown by pre-heater, creating dry saturated vapor mass. The dry
process 11-12)in a secondary fluid turbine to saturated
produce electricity. Subcooled geo
 7
Power Generation
Geothermal Energy Applicationin

Sat. vapour

Geo-fluid

Stematurbine
1 condenser
steam To cooling

-
Flash
chamber
tower (CT)

Sat. liquid
11
Evporator SFturbine
Secondary Cooling water (CW)
fluid (SF)

Pre-heater
10 SF
condenser
12
To CT

i
8
CW

Water
Pump

Production Injection
well well
binary geothermal power cycle.
Fig. 6 Layout of the combined flash
together. After mixing, the entire geo
geo-fluid leaving the pre-heater (at state 8) mix fluid turbine are
fluid from the water pump (at
state 5) and steam turbine and a secondary
the injection well (at state-j). Thus, in aCFBGC, a
fluid mass is directed to secondary energy. task. The selected working
simultaneously employed to generate the fluids for both the BGC and the CFBGC is a challenging depletion potential (ODP) and
working
Selection of suitable secondary thermo-economic performance should also have zero ozone have been conducted on the
desirable Extensive studies
fluid besides exhibiting a (GWP). It should benon-toxic
and non-flammable. a BGC by
warming potential (2021) improved the operating-performance of operating
low global working fluids. Ozcan and Ekici
Zeyghami (2015) assessed the
selection of suitable secondary secondary working fluid n-pentane with RI13. the choice of the optimum secondary
conventionally used and concluded that
(2020)suggested the
replacing the thirteen secondary organic
fluids
performance of a CFBGC with water leaving the geothermal well. Pratama et al.that though the power
on the temperature of hot CFBGC, I was observed
working fluid would depend zeotropic mixtures as the secondary fluid in the mixture, the best economical
operation
different R600-based specified composition of the
uses of
thermodynamicperformance with a
cycle exhibited better layout and higher levelized electricity
was achieved with
pure R600. compared to the FGSC, complex CFBGCconstitute only 0.02% of the
Though often CFBGC exhibits improved performance operating in a
geothermal power plants efficiency and the emergence
drawbacks of such plants. Thus, enhanced energy conversion
cost are possible geothermalpower units. However, due to
power plants operating in CFBGCis expected
installed capacity of share of geothermal
globally heat-driven powercycles, the global
of many efficient low-grade
upcoming decades.
data of the year 2015) are
installed worldwide (as per the generation.
to increase in the geothermal power plants power
conventional current status of geothermal
Capacities of the different have a bird's eye view of the
pi-chart of Fig. 7 to
summarized in the
8 Geothermal Energy Application in Power Generation

Globally installed capacity in MW Ta

2,0% rl25, 1%
1726, 14%
262, 2% Dry Steam

2863, 23% Single fflash steam

Double flash steam
2435,19% Tripple flash steam
MBinary
5216,41%
Combined flash binary
Backpressure Steam
Fig. 7 Worldwide installed capacity of different types geothermal power plants
(Bertani. 2016).
Thermodynamic Pertormance Assessment
The thermodynamic performance of any
geothermal power cycle is expressed either by lst law
lst law efficiency (or energy efficiency) of any efficiency or by 2nd law efficiency.
conventional geothermal cycle can be expressed as:
WNET
mcw (h; - ho) (1)
WNET iS the neat cycle power output and its value is
determined by the following equation:
WNET=Wr-Wh (2)
Expressions of turbine power outputs (WTur) and pump power inputs (WA) for various conventional geothermal
as are summarized in Table 1. power cycles
2nd law efficiency (or exergy effciency) of any geothermal power cycle is estimated by following equation:

WNET (3)
m
Gåe; mCuei
In the above equation, e, represents the physical-exergy of the geo-fluid stream leaving the geothermal well. Èp is the exergy
destruction of each individual component of the power cycde. Expression of component exergy destruction can be expressed by the
following generalized equation.
(4)
It is worthwhile mentioning that; physical exergy of any stream is estimated as follows
e= (h- ho) - To(s - So) (5)
É, represents exergy loss with any outgoing fluid streamn. The major loss of exergy occurs with the geo-luid stream flowing to
the injecion well. Small amount of exergy loss also occurs with the condenser cooling water exiting the condenser.