| Abstract |
Tapi valley in the Maharashtra state, India hosts seven geothermal manifestations those are situated in between the southern foot hill margin of the Satpura hills and northern bank of the Tapi River. The belt of these hot springs extends over a length of 160 km and a width of 50-60 km in Dhule, Jalgaon and Nandurbar District of Maharashtra State, India. Thermal springs of this region are perennial; liquid dominated and discharge thermal water through either faults or dykes in the Deccan volcanic terrain at a constant rate through out the year. Regular observation indicates that one of these (Kundwa) releases gas bubbles. All of these are low to medium enthalpy springs with the surface temperature varying from 38to 60C, estimated reservoir temperature varying from 830C to 1140 C and with a surface discharge rate of 10 l/min to 42 l/min (14400lday to 60480lday). Thermal springs discharging water of low to medium enthalpy have been extensively tapped as non-conventional energy sources in many countries like New Zealand, United States of America, Iceland, China, Japan, United Kingdom and many other countries. India has yet to start utilisation of its geothermal energy resources as a substitute to the commercial energy resources. At present direct heat application is mainly for the purpose of promoting tourism by way of taking warm water bath to remove skin diseases, a number of other utilization have taken up on a small scale which includes space heating, poultry farming, green house cultivation, borax and sulphur extraction, cold storage, etc. but in the light of electricity generation plant installed at Lightning Dock near Animas, the new plant will incorporate an innovative binary liquid technology that allows it to make use of the site’s low levels of geothermal energy (1650f or 74 0c). Therefore, in order to establish the feasibility of electricity generation, by binary liquid technology, from the thermal spring water of Tapi Valley of Maharashtra State has been evaluated in this paper. |