Geothermal Energy

Lecture Outline
Introduction and Brief History
Earth Structure and Geothermal
Regions
Principle and Geothermal Systems
Extraction Techniques
Hot Sedimentary aquifers
Hot Dry Rock (HDR)

Utilization
Electricity Generation
Direct Heat Use:
Heat pumps

Introduction
Heat is a form of energy.
Geothermal energyis, literally, the
heat contained within the Earth that
generates geological phenomena on a
planetary scale.
Geothermal energy' is often used to
indicate that part of the Earth's heat
that can, or could, be recovered and
exploited by man.

Brief History
Presence of natural thermal phenomena
such as Volcanoes, Hot springs, Geysers and
Fumaroles.
16th and 17th century: From the first mines
excavated to a few hundred metres below
ground level, man deduced that the Earth's
temperature increased with depth.
1740: The first thermometric measurements
were carried out in a mine near Belfort,
France by De Gensanne (Buffon, 1778).

Brief History (contd.)

1870: Modern scientific methods were
being used to study the thermal regime
of the Earth (Bullard, 1965).
20th Century: The discovery of the role
played
byradiogenic
heat
made
phenomena such as heat balance and
the Earth's thermal history fully
comprehensible.

Earths S tructure

Geothermal regions

Earths Temperature
Profile
Region

Thickness (Km)

Temperature C

Crust

20 - 65

1100

Mantle

2900

3700-4500

Liquid (iron) core

2250

4500-6000

Solid inner (iron)

core

1220 (centre)

4500-6600

Deeper Geothermal
Energy

Slow decay of radioactive minerals

with temperatures increasing with
depth.
This energy can be accessed by
bringing hot water from deep in the
earths strata to the surface.
Used to drive direct thermal use
processes such as air conditioning,
desalination as well as electricity
generation.

Shallow Geothermal
Energy

Low level heat with temperatures commonly

in the range of 15C to 30C.
Gained from solar radiation absorbed by the
upper layers of the earth.
It can be tapped into at shallow ground
depths (generally up to 100m) using closed
ground loops or by accessing shallow
aquifers or open water bodies.
Often used for domestic space heating,
cooling and delivery of hot and chilled
water.

Different Geothermal
Regions
Hyper-thermal

Temperature gradient of greater than 80C km1.

Tectonic plate

Semi-thermal
Temperature gradient approximately 40-80C
km-1.
Dry rock or natural aquifer

Normal
Temperature gradient of less than 40C km-1.
Not cost effective for space heating

How does it Work?

Principle
Geothermal Systems

Fluid Convection
Convection occurs because of the
heating
and
consequent
thermal
expansion of fluids in a gravity field.
Heat supplied at the base of the
circulation system is the energy that
drives the system.
Heated fluid with lower density tends to
rise and be replaced by colder fluid of
higher density which come from the
margins of the system.

Geothermal System
It can schematically be described as
convecting water in the upper crust of
the Earth which in a confined space,
transfers heat from a heat source to a
heat sink, usually the free surface
(Hochstein, 1990).
It consists of three main elements:
Heat source
Reservoir and
Fluid

Heat Source
The heat source can either be a very
high temperature (> 600C) magmatic
intrusion that has reached relatively
shallow depths (5-10 km)
The Earth's normal temperature which
increases with depth as observed in
certain low-temperature systems.

The Reservoir
A volume of hot permeable rocks from
which the circulating fluids extract heat.
Generally overlain by a cover of
impermeable rocks and connected to a
surficial recharge area through which
the meteoric waters can replace (or
partly replace) the fluids that escaped
from the reservoir via springs or
boreholes.

The Fluid
The carrier that transfers the heat.
In the majority of cases, meteoric water
in its liquid or vapour phase depending
on its temperature and pressure.
This water often carries with it chemicals
and gases such as CO2, H2S, etc.
Next slide is a greatly simplified
representation of an ideal geothermal
system.

Ideal Geothermal
System

Geothermal Extraction
Techniques

Available Resources
Natural hydrothermal circulation
Hot Sedimentary Aquifers

Hot dry rock fracturing

Poorly conducting dry rock e.g. granite

Hot igneous systems

Semi-molten magma

Hot Sedimentary
Aquifers
Wells are drilled into
sedimentary
basins
where hot sedimentary
aquifers exist at depth.
These wells are drilled
to access hot water for
use either as a direct
source of heat for a
range of processes or
for
electricity
generation.
Courtesy:
www.gtpower.com.au

Hot Dry Rocks

Majorly
used
for
electricity generation.
Wells are drilled into
granites to depths up
to 5km and the rock is
fractured to create
permeability
for
circulation of water.
The water absorbs the
heat which may be up
to 200C or more

Courtesy:
www.gtpower.com.au

Utilization
Electricity generation
Direct Heat use
Space Cooling
Space Conditioning

Electricity Generation
There are many different types of
systems that can generate electricity:
Dry steam power plants operate using
steam from 150C
Flash steam requires at least 180C and
Binary cycle plants can operate from as
little as 57C but with low efficiency;
generally they operate from around 120C.

Electricity Generation: hydrothermal and

hot dry rock extraction

Installed Generating
Capacity

Country
Total

Argentina
Australia
Austria
China
Costa Rica
El Salvador
Ethiopia
Germany
Guatemala
Iceland
Indonesia
Italy
Japan
Kenya
Mexico
New Zealand
Nicaragua
Papua New
Guinea
Philippines
Portugal
(Azores)
Russia
Thailand
Turkey
USA

1990
MWe
5.831,8

1995
2000
MWe
MWe
6.866,8 7.974,1

0,7
0,0
0,0
19,2
0,0
95,0
0,0
0,0
0,0
44,6
144,8
545,0
214,6
45,0
700,0
283,2
35,0

0,6
0,2
0,0
28,8
55,0
105,0
0,0
0,0
33,4
50,0
309,8
631,7
413,7
45,0
753,0
286,0
70,0

0,0

2005 MWe 2010 MWe 2013 Mwe

9.064,1

10.716,7

11.772,0

0,0
0,2
0,0
29,2
142,5
161,0
8,5
0,0
33,4
170,0
589,5
785,0
546,9
45,0
755,0
437,0
70,0

0
0,2
1,0
28,0
163,0
151,0
7,0
0,2
33,0
322,0
797,0
790,0
535,0
127,0
953,0
435,0
77,0

0,0
1,1
1,4
24,0
166,0
204,0
7,3
6,6
52,0
575,0
1.197,0
843,0
536,0
167,0
958,0
628,0
88,0

0,0
1,0
1,4
27,0
207,1
204,4
8,0
11,9
48,0
664,4
1.341,0
875,5
537,0
248,5
1.017,4
842,6
149,5

0,0

0,0

39,0

56,0

56,0

891,0

1.227,0

1.909,0

1.931,0

1.904,0

1.848,0

3,0

5,0

16,0

16,0

29,0

28,5

11,0
0,3
20,6
2.774,6

11,0
0,3
20,4
2.816,7

23,0
0,3
20,4
2.228,0

79,0
0,3
20,4
2.544,0

82,0
0,3
82,0
3.093,0

81,9
0,3
166,6
3.389,0

Direct Heat Uses

Medium-to-low
(<150C)

temperature

resources

Bathing
Space and District Heating
Agricultural
aquaculture

Applications

like

Some industrial uses.

Heat pumps: The most widespread use

Space Cooling
The absorption cycle is a process that
utilises heat instead of electricity as the
energy source.
Geothermal fluids provide the thermal
energy to drive the machines, although
machine
efficiency
decreases
with
temperatures lower than 105C.
The
refrigeration/cooling
effect
obtained by utilising two fluids:

is

Space Cooling (contd.)

A refrigerant which circulates,
condenses
A secondary fluid or absorbent.

evaporates

and

For applications above 0C (primarily in

space and process conditioning), lithium
bromide is the absorbent while water is the
refrigerant.
For
applications
below
0C,
an
ammonia/water cycle is adopted with
ammonia as the refrigerant and water as the
absorbent.

Heat Pumps
Ground Source Heat Pumps
(GSHP)
Air-Source Heat Pumps

Heat Pumps
Heat pumps are machines that move heat
in a direction opposite to that in which it
would tend to go naturally, i.e. from a
cold space or body to a warmer one.
It is effectively nothing more than a
refrigeration unit (Rafferty, 1997).
The only difference between a heat pump
and a refrigeration unit is the desired
effect: cooling for the refrigeration unit
and heating for the heat pump.

Heat Pumps (contd.)

Many heat pumps are reversible and can
provide either heating or cooling in the space.
Geothermalspace conditioning(heating and
cooling) has expanded considerably since the
1980s,
following
the
introduction
and
widespread use ofheat pumps.
The various systems of heat pumps available
allow for the economical extraction and
utilisation of the heat content of lowtemperature bodies such as the ground,
shallow aquifers, ponds, etc. (Sanner, 2001)

Direct Heat Use:

Installed Capacity
Type of Direct Heat
Use
Heat pumps

Installed Capacity
(%)
34.80%

Bathing

26.20%

Space-heating

21.62%

Greenhouses

8.22%

Aquaculture

3.93%

Industrial processes

3.13%

Assignment (not Term

Paper)
Difference(s) between a GroundSource Heat Pump and an AirSource Heat Pump?
Submit on Monday
Maximum of 3pages only; no spiral
binding!

See you next Class!