| Title | Geothermal Steam-Water Separators: Design Overview |
|---|---|
| Authors | Sadiq J. Zarrouk and Munggang H. Purnanto |
| Year | 2013 |
| Conference | New Zealand Geothermal Workshop |
| Keywords | Geothermal Separator, Cyclone, Separator Efficiency, Vertical Separator |
| Abstract | Since the development of the liquid dominated geothermal reservoir at Wairakei in 1950’s, various separator designs have been utilized to enable the separation of steam and water from two-phase geothermal fluid so that only dry steam is sent to run the turbine and generate electricity. Information from several existing geothermal fields show that there are two common separator designs: the vertical cyclone separator and the horizontal separator. Both designs claim to have high separation efficiency in the order of 99.9% or higher. The vertical cyclone separator is normally found at power stations with strong influence from New Zealand’s technology, while the horizontal separator is normally found at power stations with strong influence by Iceland’s technology. This paper reviews the steam-water separator that is commonly used in geothermal steam fields worldwide. Several approaches that can be used to design the geothermal steam-water separator are incorporated. Bangma’s and Lazalde-Crabtree’s methods are used to design the vertical vessel dimensions whereas Gerunda’s method is used to design the horizontal vessel dimensions. The general steps to design the separator for given geothermal fluid data is also presented, starting from selection of separation pressure, predicting the efficiency and calculating the internal pressure drop. |