Harnessing Geothermal Resources

1. Harnessing Geothermal Resources • Hot Water Reservoirs • Natural Steam reservoirs • Geopressured Reservoirs • Normal Geothermal Gradient • Hot Dry Rock • Molten Magma

2. Hot Water reservoirs • Heated underground reservoirs • Used for heating buildings, raising plants in greenhouses, drying crops, heating water for fish farms, or for industrial processes. • Example of a direct use system • a well is drilled into a geothermal reservoir to provide a steady stream of hot water. • The water is brought up through the well, piping, a heat exchanger, and controls delivers the heat directly for its intended use. • A disposal system then either injects the cooled water underground or disposes of it in a surface storage pond.

3. Natural Steam Reservoirs • Sources of natural steam, like the geysers previously discussed, used to drive a turbine. • Hydrothermal reservoirs consist of a heat source covered by a permeable formation through which water circulates. • Steam is produced when hot water boils underground and some of the steam escapes to the surface under pressure. • Once at the surface, impurities and tiny rock particles are removed, and the steam is piped directly to the electrical generating station

4. Geopressurized reservoirs • Geopressurized reservoirs are sedimentary formations containing hot water (brine-water saturated with salt) and methane gas. • Could be a source of both power and natural gas

5. Normal geothermal gradient/Hot Dry Rock • Natural geothermal gradient of about 30°/km exists. • A geothermal heat pump system consists of pipes buried in the shallow ground near a building, a heat exchanger, and ductwork into the building. • In winter, heat from the relatively warmer ground goes through the heat exchanger into the house. • In summer, hot air from the house is pulled through the heat exchanger into the relatively cooler ground. Heat removed can be used as no-cost energy to heat water. • Variation: Direct exchange geothermal heat pump: A heat pump without a heat exchanger, which circulates the working fluid through pipes in the ground. • Hot Dry rock is the same idea, but in certain locations the gradient is much higher

6. US Geothermal Resources

7. Advantages • Geothermal power requires no fuel, is emissions free and is not susceptible to fluctuations in fuel cost. • geothermal power station don’t rely on transient sources of energy (wind, sun) • It is considered to be sustainable because the heat extraction is small compared to the size of the heat reservoir. • individual wells may need to recover, geothermal heat is inexhaustible and is replenished from greater depths. The long-term sustainability of geothermal energy production has been demonstrated at the Lardarello field in Italy since 1913, at the Wairakei field in New Zealand since 1958, and at The Geysers field in California since 1960. • However, there has been a decrease in output noted at The Geysers • Geothermal has minimal land use requirements

8. Disadvantages • The geothermal fluid is corrosive and, worse, is at a low temperature compared to steam from boilers, this limits the efficiency of heat engines in extracting useful energy during the generation of electricity. Much of the heat energy is lost, but could be used for co-generation purposes • Construction of the power plants can adversely affect land stability in the surrounding region. This is mainly a concern with Enhanced Geothermal Systems, where water is injected into hot dry rock where no water was before. • Dry steam and flash steam power plants also emit low levels of carbon dioxide, nitric oxide, and sulphur, although at roughly 5% of the levels emitted by fossil fuel power plants. However, geothermal plants can be built with emissions-controlling systems that can inject these substances back into the earth, thereby reducing carbon emissions to less than 0.1% of those from fossil fuel power plants. • Hot water from geothermal sources will contain trace amounts of dangerous elements such as mercury, arsenic, and antimony which, if disposed of into rivers, can render their water unsafe to drink. • Locations may eventually cool down

9. Biomass • Plant matter grown to generate electricity or produce biofuel • Examples: trash such as dead trees and branches, yard clippings and wood chips, plant or animal matter used for production of fibers, chemicals or heat. • Biomass may also include biodegradable wastes that can be burnt as fuel. • It excludes organic material which has been transformed by geological processes into substances such as coal or petroleum.

10. Energy from Biomass • Comes initially from the sun • Solar energy is stored as chemical energy in the plants • This chemical energy is released when the biomass is burned or converted to another fuel that is burned. • Process starts with the conversion of sunlight to chemical energy in the plant – we call this photosynthesis

11. Review of Photosynthesis • Plant takes in water and carbon dioxide. The energy in visible light excites atoms in the water and carbon dioxide which allows bonding to take place. As a result, compounds with hydrogen, carbon and oxygen are formed (called carbohydrates), along with oxygen and water. • The simplest carbohydrate formed is sugar, and these compounds are the plant’s fuel.

12. Biomass • About 30% of the energy in the incident sunlight is stored in biomass. • Not a new idea, remember way back in the semester when we looked at sources of energy production in the US? Wood was a primary source of energy until 1880. • If you look at the average crop yield for all the harvested land in the US, you find that nearly all our energy needs could be furnished from biomass.

13. Municipal Waste • Our solid waste (garbage) needs a home-we normally put it in a landfill (polite name for a dump!) • Landfill sites are diminishing for a variety of reasons, but our waste production is increasing. • Unfriendly to the environment: • Can contaminate groundwater • Nasty smell • Harbor diseases and disease carrying rodents • Can contain toxic chemicals • Emit methane (produced in the decay of organic materials and is not only toxic, but a greenhouse gas)

14. Municipal waste • This waste has energy stored in it, which can be released of the waste is burned. • Energy produced is modest, but this solves another environmental problem. • Plants are expensive to construct and maintain, most cities do not have the money to get one started. Rely on private investors or companies

15. Creating Fuel from Biomass • Ethanol – common form of alcohol, it is an oxygenated hydrocarbon (a hydrocarbon with oxygen added). • Also known as ethyl alcohol, pure alcohol, grain alcohol, or drinking alcohol, • volatile, flammable, colorless liquid. • type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages and in modern thermometers. • Fermentation of sugar to ethanol is one of the earliest organic reactions employed by humanity

16. Ethanol • Usually produced from corn, though other grains can be used. (Brazil is a major user of Ethanol, and uses sugar cane to produce their ethanol) • Entire plant is ground up and mixed with water. • Cooked to convert starch to sugars via enzymatic action. • Sugars are converted to alcohol via fermentation. • Distillation removes the rest of the material from the alcohol.

17. Ethanol as a Fuel additive • Ethanol increases the oxygen content of gasoline, and leads to more complete combustion and reduces CO2 emissions. • Mixtures are defined by E#, where # is the percent of ethanol in the fuel. • So E100 is 100% ethanol • E10 (10% ethanol) is a particular type of mixture called gashol. • Current gasoline engines cannot run on pure ethanol since to maximize its energy conversion efficiency, higher compression ratios are needed, which won’t work for gasoline engines.

18. Debate rages • Will it really solve all our problems? • Is it cheaper? • Is it cost effective? • What about the issue of using a food source (corn) for fuel?

19. Methane from Biomass • Methane makes up 85% of the natural gas extracted from the ground. • In the presence of water and absence of oxygen, organic material will ferment naturally. • Such organic materials include: • Crops • Agricultural waste (animal or vegetable) • Waste from lumber mills • waste from breweries • Algae • Sludge from sewage treatment plants • Municipal waste • Fermentation by bacteria in the absence of oxygen is called anaerobic fermentation

20. Methane from Biomass • Same heating value as natural gas • High conversion efficiency(50-70% of the useful energy is converted) • High cost • Useful in systems that can generate their own power - for example sewage plants

21. Biodiesel • Diesel fuel made from vegetable oil, recycled cooking grease or oil and animal fat • Used as a fuel additive, designate the same way we designate ethanol fuels-i.e B# where # is the amount of biodiesel in the diesel fuel. • B20 widely used in trucks and school buses