| Abstract |
Geothermal energy is a reliable and sustainable renewable energy resource that can support a wide range of applications, including electricity generation, heating, cooling etc. In the recent years, the integration of cooling strategies into geothermal systems has gained attention as a promising approach to enhance overall energy efficiency and enable better utilization of geothermal heat. Funded by the European Union under the Horizon Europe program, the nGEL Project aims to demonstrate an absorption chiller as an advanced cooling integration strategy for air-cooled geothermal ORC systems. Within the scope of the project, an additional Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) unit will be implemented at the Kızıldere-2 geothermal power plant. This new ORC unit will be equipped with its own air-cooled condenser (ACC), providing a representative platform for typical ACC-based geothermal systems. As part of the trigeneration upgrade, an absorption cooling unit will be integrated into the secondary ORC system. This integration aims to utilize geothermal heat for cooling purposes, and increase the overall operational flexibility of the plant. This paper focuses on key engineering aspects and challenges related to the integration of absorption cooling into ACC-based ORC systems. The study aims to establish a scalable and replicable model for sustainable and multi-output geothermal energy applications. |