Thermodynamic performance evaluation of a geothermal ORC power plant

Abstract

This work presents a thermodynamic evaluation of an operating geothermal ORC power plant. The model is realized by using measured data of AFJET geothermal power plant which has 3MWe net power output capacity. Thermodynamic assessment of the system is conducted to see the energy and exergy efficiencies of each component, and the whole plant. Additionally, a parametric study is conducted to understand the effects of various operating conditions on the system performance. Different from previous studies, daily and annual net power output profile of the plant was investigated with considering ambient temperature fluctuations. Results revealed that net power output can drop as significant as 36% from winter to summer months. Also, between nighttime to daytime, the net power expectation may decrease by 5%. The exergy destruction rate of re-injection process constitutes the most significant part (38.1%) of the total exergy destruction of the plant. The conversion and exergy efficiencies of the system are calculated as 11.24% and 39.03%, respectively. Also, to enhance the performance of the plant, an internal heat recovery system is recommended. The analyses show that the implementation of an internal heat recovery system improves the energy and exergy efficiencies of the plant by 15%.