| Title | Exergy Analysis of Combined Electricity and Direct-Heat Geothermal Flash-Steam Plants |
|---|---|
| Authors | DiPippo, Ronald |
| Year | 1987 |
| Conference | Geothermal Resources Council Transactions |
| Keywords | Power Generation; Flash Steam; Efficiency; Economics; Double Flash |
| Abstract | The Second Law of thermodynamics is used to analyze and optimize a geothermal plant which generates electricity via a single flash process and supplies a portion of the separated brein to a heat exchange facility where fresh water heated for distribution to a variety of users. The basic equations are summarized and applied to a hypothetical system. Second Law efficiencies are calculated for a typical se to plant conditions. A different case study shows how to select the flash temperature in such a way as to maximize the total economic value of outputs of the plant for various monetary values of the heat energy relative to the electrical energy. It is shown that the optimum flash temperature increase as the value of the heat energy increase for a fixed value of the electrical energy. The equations and method given can easily be extended to more complex systems including double flash points. |