Geothermal Energy

Seminar Report
On

By
Name: P.ROHITH
Roll No: 10C41A0339
Course: MECHANICAL

Department of MECHANICAL ENGINEERING

JAYAMUKHI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGICAL SCIENCES

NARSAMPET, WARANGAL-506 332
(Affiliated to JNTUH, Accredited by NBA)
APRIL 2014

Department Of Mechanical Engineering, JITS

Geothermal Energy

JAYAMUKHI INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGICAL

SCIENCES
NARSAMPET, WARANGAL 506 332
(Affiliated to JNTUH, Accredited by NBA)

CERTIFICATE

This is to certify that the Seminar Report entitled GEO THERMAL ENERGY is
submitted by P.ROHITH bearing Roll No 10C41A0339 in IV B.Tech (ME) II semester.

Supervisor

Head of the Department

MR. M.JAWAHAR

Prof. V.VIKARAM REDDDY

Department Of Mechanical Engineering, JITS

Geothermal Energy

CONTENTS
1) INTRODUCTION
2) SOURCES OF EARTHS INTERNAL ENERGY
2.1 Different Geothermal Energy Sources

3) DIRECT USES OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY IS

APPROPRIATE FOR SOURCES BELOW 1500C
3.1How Direct Uses Work

4) GROUND HEAT COLLECTERS

4.1 Borehole Heat Exchange

5) GENERATION OF ELECTRICITY
6) HOT DRY ROCKS
7) GEOTHERMALS HARMFUL EFFECTS
8) GEOTHERMALS POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES
9) GEOTHERMAL HEAT PUMPS
10) AVAILABILITY OF GEO THERMAL ENERGY
11) HIGH TEMPERATURE SYSTEMS
12) LOW TEMPERATURE SYSTEMS
13) ADVANTAGES
14) CONCLUSION
15) REFERENCES
16) BIBILOGRAPHY

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Geothermal Energy

1. INTRODUCTION
The centre of Earth is believed to be 5,500 degrees Celcius which is almost as hot as
the surface of the sun. Geothermal (which literally means Earth Heat) energy is energy
which is taken from inside the Earth and used by us. Even a couple of miles down the
temperature of the Earth can be over 200 degrees Celcius. Therefore there is an enormous
amount of energy to be tapped into
The top 15 metres of the Earth's surface have a relatively constant temperature
through all of the seasons. Therefore one of the commonest uses of geothermal energy is
Geothermal Heat Pumps. Pipes buried into the ground circulate fluid through the warm
ground extracting energy and using it to heat buildings very efficiently. In the summer heat
from buildings can be transfered back into the ground by the same process cooling the
building. Geothermal heat pumps can be used almost everywhere on the Earth's surface.
Often used in agriculture to heat greenhouses, geothermal heat pumps cut electricity bills by
up to 80%.
Geothermal heat can also be used directly in volcanic locations around the world. For
example, in Iceland water is heated by being pumped down into the ground and back up
again. In those locations with extreme geothermal heat close to the surface (e.g. natural hot
springs) it is even possible to generate electricity using turbines driven by the steam to power
generators. Geothermal power stations are very clean emitting only steam and a few trace
gases, and they take up very little space compared to fossil fuel power stations.

Department Of Mechanical Engineering, JITS

Geothermal Energy

2. SOURCES OF EARTHS INTERNAL ENERGY

70% comes from the decay of radioactive nuclei with long half lives that are
embedded within the Earth

Some energy is from residual heat left over from Earths formation.

The rest of the energy comes from meteorite impacts.

2.1 Different Geothermal Energy Sources:

Hot Water Reservoirs: As the name implies these are reservoirs of hot underground
water. There is a large amount of them in the US, but they are more suited for space
heating than for electricity production.

Natural Stem Reservoirs: In this case a hole dug into the ground can cause steam to
come to the surface. This type of resource is rare in the US.

Geopressured Reservoirs: In this type of reserve, brine completely saturated with

natural gas in stored under pressure from the weight of overlying rock. This type of
resource can be used for both heat and for natural gas.

Normal Geothermal Gradient: At any place on the planet, there is a normal

temperature gradient of +300C per km dug into the earth. Therefore, if one digs
20,000 feet the temperature will be about 1900C above the surface temperature. This
difference will be enough to produce electricity. However, no useful and economical
technology has been developed to extracted this large source of energy.

Hot Dry Rock: This type of condition exists in 5% of the US. It is similar to Normal
Geothermal Gradient, but the gradient is 400C/km dug underground.

Department Of Mechanical Engineering, JITS

Geothermal Energy

Molten Magma: No technology exists to tap into the heat reserves stored in magma.
The best sources for this in the US are in Alaska and Hawaii.

3. DIRECT USES OF GEOTHERMAL ENERGY IS

APPROPRIATE FOR SOURCES BELOW 1500C
space heating
air conditioning
industrial processes
drying
Greenhouses
Aguaculture
hot water
resorts and pools
melting snow

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Geothermal Energy

3.1

How Direct Uses Work:

Direct Sources function by sending water down a well to be heated by the Earths
warmth.
Then a heat pump is used to take the heat from the underground water to the
substance that heats the house.
Then after the water it is cooled is injected back into the Earth.

Department Of Mechanical Engineering, JITS

Geothermal Energy

4.GROUND HEAT COLLECTERS

This system uses horizontal loops filled with circulating water at a depth of 80 to 160
cm underground.

4.1 Borehole Heat Exchange :

This type uses one or two underground vertical loops that extend 150 meters below
the surface.

Fig.4.1

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Geothermal Energy

5. GENERATION OF ELECTRICITY
Dry Steam Plants: These were the first type of plants created. They use underground
steam to directly turn the turbines.
Flash Steam Plants: These are the most common plants. These systems pull deep,
high pressured hot water that reaches temperatures of 3600F or more to the surface. This
water is transported to low pressure chambers, and the resulting steam drives the turbines.
The remaining water and steam are then injected back into the source from which they were
taken.

Fig 5.1

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Geothermal Energy

6. HOT DRY ROCKS

The simplest models have one injection well and two production wells. Pressurized
cold water is sent down the injection well where the hot rocks heat the water up. Then
pressurized water of temperatures greater than 2000F is brought to the surface and passed
near a liquid with a lower boiling temperature, such as an organic liquid like butane. The
ensuing steam turns the turbines. Then, the cool water is again injected to be heated. This
system does not produce any emissions. US geothermal industries are making plans to
commercialize this new technology.

Fig 6.1

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Geothermal Energy

7. GEOTHERMALS HARMFUL EFFECTS

Brine can salinate soil if the water is not injected back into the reserve after the heat is
extracted.

Extracting large amounts of water can cause land subsidence, and this can lead to an
increase in seismic activity. To prevented this the cooled water must be injected back
into the reserve in order to keep the water pressure constant underground.

Power plants that do not inject the cooled water back into the ground can release
H2S, the rotten eggs gas. This gas can cause problems if large quantities escape
because inhaling too much is fatal.

One well blew its top 10 years after it was built, and this threw hundreds of tons of
rock, mud and steam into the atmosphere.

There is the fear of noise pollution during the drilling of wells.

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Geothermal Energy

8. GEOTHERMALS POSITIVE ATTRIBUTES

Useful minerals, such as zinc and silica, can be extracted from underground water.

Geothermal energy is homegrown. This will create jobs, a better global trading
position and less reliance on oil producing countries.

US geothermal companies have signed $6 billion worth of contracts to build plants in

foreign countries in the past couple of years.

In large plants the cost is 4-8 cents per kilowatt hour. This cost is almost competitive
with conventional energy sources.

Geothermal plants can be online 100%-90% of the time. Coal plants can only be
online 75% of the time and nuclear plants can only be online 65% of the time.

Flash and Dry Steam Power Plants emit 1000x to 2000x less carbon dioxide than
fossil fuel plants, no nitrogen oxides and little SO2.

Geothermal electric plants production in 13.380 g of Carbon dioxide per kWh,

whereas the CO2 emissions are 453 g/kWh for natural gas, 906g g/kWh for oil and
1042 g/kWh for coal.

Binary and Hot Dry Rock plants have no gaseous emission at all.

Geothermal plants do not require a lot of land, 400m2 can produce a gigawatt of
energy over 30 years.

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Geothermal Energy

9. GEOTHERMAL HEAT PUMPS

produces 4 times the energy that they consume.

initially costs more to install, but its maintenance cost is 1/3 of the cost for a typical
conventional heating system and it decreases electric bill. This means that geothermal
space heating will save the consumer money.

can be installed with the help of special programs that offer low interest rate loans.

Electricity generated by geothermal plants saves 83.3 million barrels of fuel each year
from being burned world wide. This prevents 40.2 million tons of CO2 from being
emitted into the atmosphere.

Direct use of geothermal energy prevents 103.6 million barrels of fuel each year from
being burned world wide. This stops 49.6 tons of CO 2 from being emitted into the
atmosphere.

Fig.9.1
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Geothermal Energy

Fig.9.2

Fig.9.3

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Geothermal Energy

10. AVAILABILITY OF GEO THERMAL ENERGY

On average, the Earth emits 1/16 W/m2. However, this number can be much higher in
areas such as regions near volcanoes, hot springs and fumaroles.

As a rough rule, 1 km3 of hot rock cooled by 1000C will yield 30 MW of electricity
over thirty years.

It is estimated that the world could produce 600,000 EJ over 5 million years.

There is believed to be enough heat radiating from the center of the Earth to fulfill
human energy demands for the remainder of the biospheres lifetime.

Geothermal production of energy is 3rd highest among renewable energies. It is

behind hydro and biomass, but before solar and wind.

Iceland is one of the more countries successful in using geothermal energy:

86% of their space heating uses geothermal energy.

16% of their electricity generation uses geothermal energy.

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Table 10.1

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Geothermal Energy

Table 10.2

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Geothermal Energy

11. HIGH TEMPERATURE SYSTEMS

These areas are associated with the Ring of Fire volcanic activities around the
Pacific Rim Basin
Geyser-temperature steam is contaminated with salts that cause corrosion of turbines
or engines
Removing these salts to protect the machinery is costly
Types of geothermal systems

Direct from steam underground

Flash-steam systems take in deep-well hot water (high enthalpy) that is above
the boiling point to heat clean water into steam in a heat exchanger

Binary systems that heat a low-boiling-point fluid like butane or propane to

drive a closed-loop turbine

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Geothermal Energy

12. LOW TEMPERATURE SYSTEMS

The classic use of earth/water is as a heat sink or source for air conditioning or
heating
Pipes embedded in the earth carry refrigerant or water and conduct heat from the
hotter to cooler substance
Since the earth (or water) has a high specific heat in comparison with air, there is
good thermal transfer
In winter, heat is extracted from the earth by the chilled refrigerant, while in the
summer, the hot refrigerant conducts heat to the earth
Houses have been built partially underground to moderate the winter and summer
temperatures

Dennis Weaver built an Earthship house with used tires, aluminum cans,
and stucco

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Geothermal Energy

13. ADVANTAGES
Think of all the advantages of geothermal energy when you have a lava
flow in your backyard. You could dry your clothes, warm your house and heat your water.
Even cook dinner if you wanted.
Well geothermal does help you do that without having to get so close to the source. if you are
fortunate enough to live in an area with this geologic activity in play close under the surface
of the Earth, you can harness this energy. Let's look at some of the advantages of geothermal
energy.
1. No fuel is needed. For me to heat my home, I have to tap into the electric grid powered by
Florida Power and Light. They get most of their electricity from The Power Plant that burns
coal to run the generators. With geothermal energy, the fuel is already there. No need for coal
or oil or wood.
2. No Pollution. Geothermal Energy produces no pollution. There are virtually no
greenhouse gases given off. There is no pollution.
3.Relatively efficient. Geothermal energy is also very efficient, because after a site is located
and a geothermal power plant is built, the efforts required to channel it are negligible.

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14. CONCLUSION
Geothermal energy is limited in extent as extracting the heat usually exceeds the
replenishment rate
Hot, dry rock (HDR) is widespread and offers new resources in areas where geyser
activity is unknown
Direct low-temperature heat transfer for home systems is practical as long as low
maintenance is designed into the system
Sources of high temperature water or steam are limited and the cost of extraction,
maintenance, and operation will remain high in comparison with other sources of
energy
Geothermal energy likely to remain at 1% of world energy [Kruger, 1973]

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Geothermal Energy

15. REFERENCES
http://www.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/ Government Lab
http://www.geothermalheatpump.com/how.htm Good explanation of practical use
http://www.acmehowto.com/howto/appliance/refrigerator/overview.htm
University of Nevada at Reno Desert Research Institute
http://www.bnl.gov/est/MEA.htm Brookhaven Laboratories
http://geothermal.inel.gov/ INEEL
http://www-esd.lbl.gov/ER/geothermal.html Lawrence Livermore Labs
http://www.sandia.gov/geothermal/ Sandia National Labs
http://www.nrel.gov/geothermal/ National Renewable Energy Labs
http://www.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/webresources.html More Resources

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Geothermal Energy

16. BIBILOGRAPHY
Geothermal Power Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geothermal_power
Geothermal Energy -Renewable Energy Acess.com
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/tech/geothermal
Geothermal Energy Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy -U.S. Department of
Energy http://www1.eere.energy.gov/geothermal/
The Geothermal Energy Story -Energy Story
http://www.energyquest.ca.gov/story/chapter11.html
Geothermal Energy Association http://www.geo-energy.org/

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