ChE 102

Spring 2013

Final Project: Newberry Volcano Geothermal Electric Power Generation

Power Co-Generation System, 500 kW heating and 700 kWe

Introduction

Heat stored beneath the Earth’s surface holds 50,000 times the energy of all the oil and gas in the
world combined. If it could be harnessed, it would be an ideal source of base-load power:
Geothermal is cleaner than fossil fuels, and more reliable than alternative sources like tidal,
wind, wave and solar. Today, geothermal plants in the United States generate nearly 3000
megawatts of electricity—enough to power South Dakota. Almost all of it comes from reservoirs
that are at least 150°C.

In a recent project (http://altarockenergy.com/projects.htm) at the Newberry National Monument

in Oregon, a geothermal resource was discovered that has a temperature of 325°C at a depth of 3
km. The objective of this project is to determine the optimum depth to drill a geothermal well in
this region to produce electricity and heat.

A binary power plant system just requires a heat source and sink: 75°C water can produce
electricity if the ambient air or surface water temperature is significantly cooler. This type of
electricity-producing binary power plant has been successfully installed at Chena Hot Springs in
Alaska and at the Rocky Mountain Oilfield Testing Center (RMOTC) in Wyoming.

We have been contracted to design a power plant that will meet the following specifications:
 Provide at least 700 kW of electricity from geothermal water
 A fraction of the geothermal water should be made available to provide 500 kW of heat at
T ≥ 320 K.
 The system should be optimized to find the lowest Equivalent Annual Operating Cost
(EAOC).
 Cooling water available from a nearby water lake is available at 10°C, but must be
returned at 20°C
 Geothermal water will be returned to the geothermal well no cooler than 15°C.

Background
A geothermal system requires two wells to operate (a doublet), one to inject water into the
ground (injector) and one to produce hot water from the ground (the producer). Because the
water resource in the western United States is limited, we would prefer not to use a traditional
steam-driven turbine. Instead, a second fluid, R-134a (the same refrigerant now used in
automobile and home air conditioners), which has a lower boiling point than water passes
through a heat exchanger with hot water from our geothermal wells. Heat from the geothermal
water causes the R-134a to flash to vapor, which then drives a turbine. The steps in the cycle,
shown in Figure 1, are the following:
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Hot water from the geothermal well (Stream 1) is split between Streams 2 and 3. Stream 2 passes
through the evaporator (E-101) which vaporizes the R-134a in Stream 9. After the hot water
runs through E-101, it is recombined with Stream 5 and returned to the geothermal reservoir via
our injection well (Stream 10). Some of the water (Stream 3) is also used to heat buildings on
site (E-102) before it is reinjected into the ground.

The shell of E-101 is filled with R-134a. The hot water entering the evaporator may not be hot
enough to boil water, but it is hot enough to boil the R-134a refrigerant.

The vapor R-134a (Stream 6) is expanded through the turbine (T-101), causing the turbine blades
to turn. The turbine is connected to a generator, which produces electricity.

Cooling water enters E-103 at 10°C and condenses the vapor refrigerant (Stream 7) back into a
liquid (Stream 8). Then, the pump (P-101) pressurizes the liquid R-134a back to the pressure
that enters E-101, so the cycle can start again.

ṁ1=ṁ2+ ṁ3
Figure 1: Schematic diagram showing geothermal binary power plant and hot water heating unit

From Figure 1, it can be seen that the only inputs to the power plant are geothermal water (heat),
cooling water (cooling), and pump power (electricity). There will be an optimum geofluid
temperature and corresponding depth at which to drill the well. All heat capacities will be
assumed constant (Cp = 4.184 J/g K), and you should assume that the effective annual interest
rate, i, is 15% p.a., and that the length of the project, n, is 15 years.

The temperature at depth is a function of the geothermal gradient found at the Newberry site can
be calculated using the following relationship
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depth [ m ]
T [ °C ] =25+100
1000 (00)

The base-case flowrate of geothermal water is 40 kg/s. This flowrate will be divided into two
streams, a heating stream (
ṁ3 ) and a stream to the power plant ( ṁ2 ).

The flowrate of geothermal water necessary to satisfy the heating requirement (500 kW) can be
found from

Q E−102 [ kW ]= ṁ3 [ kg/s ]C p [ kJ/kg⋅K ] ( T 3 [ K ] −T 5 [ K ] )

(00)

where
T 5 =15 ° C . The overall efficiency, η, of the conversion of heat, Q̇H [kW], to electrical

energy using T-101,

Ẇ
e [kWe], is governed by the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics, includes the
energy to drive the pump, and is

Ẇ e 1 T cw , in [ K ]
η= = 1−
Q̇ H 3 (
T 1[ K ] ) (00)

Where Q̇H [kJ/s] is the heat removed from the geothermal stream, Q̇ E−101 [ kW ]

Q̇evap [kW ]= ṁ power [ kg/s]C p [ kJ/kg⋅K ] ( T geo, H [ K ] −T geo , C [ K ] )

(00)

The heat required in the evaporator can also be calculated using

Q̇evap [kW ]= ṁ process [ kg/s ] ΔH vap [ kJ/kg ] (00)

where
ṁprocess is the flowrate [kg/s] of the process stream, and
ΔH vap is the heat of
vaporization (1,400 kJ/kg) of the process stream.
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Economic Data

As in previous projects, the objective function for your optimizations should be the equivalent
annual operating cost (EAOC) of purchasing and installing the turbines and energy recovery
system. If the plant that you design produces less than 700 MW e you can purchase make-up
electricity at the cost of electricity given below. If the geothermal water is too cold (T1 < 320 K),
you can heat water with natural gas at $6/million kJ.

Capital Investment Costs (installed costs for all equipment are given below)

The design equation for the heat exchangers (generator, evaporator, and condenser) is given by

2 2
Q[W ]=ṁi [ kg/s ]C p ,i [ J/kg K ] ( T i,out −T i ,in )=U [ W/m K ] A [m ] FΔT lm (00)

where
( T 1, in −T 2, out ) −( T 1 ,out −T 2, in )
ΔT lm =
( T 1, in −T 2, out )
ln
( T 1, out −T 2, in ) (00)
and
F  0.8 (assume that this is constant for all cases)
U = overall heat transfer coefficient = 1000 W/m2K
i = either stream

The cost of the heat exchanger is based on its area, which can be calculated by solving for A in
Equation 00. The cost equation is

0 .57
PChx [ $]=$ 12, 000 ( A[ m2 ] ) (00)

The cost of the turbine is

0.69
PC turbine [ $ ] =5,000 ( Ẇ [ kW ] ) (00)

The cost of the pump may be estimated using Equation 00

PC pump [ $ ] =0 .1 PC turbine (00)

Drilling costs have been extensively studied for geothermal wells and it has been found that the
cost of each well (two needed) will follow an exponential cost curve:

0 .0008 depth [ m ]
PC well [ $/well ] =250 , 000+696 ,000 e (00)

Operating Costs
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Cost (value) of electricity, Celect = $0.08/kWh