Any Geothermal Oppos?

"DipodomysDeserti" (dipodomysdeserti) 01/11/2020 at 13:43 • Filed to: None

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Thanks to a professor giving me the hookup and showing me some loopholes, I’ll be starting my applied research project early, and will have a whole year to work on it (most of it being done over the summer). It involves geothermal power plants and possible discharge water recycling for use in sustainable community development. If any Oppos have experience in geothermal power plants, I’d love to possibly use you as a resource. Thanks!

Hippy dip hot springs for your time.

bob and john > DipodomysDeserti 01/11/2020 at 13:50

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Very nice!

sadly, my hookups involve motorcycles, so I wont be able to help ya

DipodomysDeserti > bob and john 01/11/2020 at 13:52

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Best enduro to cruise around rural northern Nevada in during summer?

bob and john > DipodomysDeserti 01/11/2020 at 13:56

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fire roads? A frica twin.

single track? WR250R/F (I forget which is the street legal one )

Urambo Tauro > DipodomysDeserti 01/11/2020 at 14:09

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I don’t know much about thermal Geos but I found this

someassemblyrequired > DipodomysDeserti 01/11/2020 at 14:15

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I taught thermodynamics, heat transfer and thermal systems design at university level for a few years - I don’t have direct experience with geothermal but I know a bit. Generally the condensate leaving the turbines is returned back down and injection well and then reheated geothermally and recovered from the source well. Generally there’s not a lot of waste heat as I understand it - but you may be able to use a heat exchanger to recover some waste heat for low temp  domestic/commercial use before reinjection.

BaconSandwich is tasty. > DipodomysDeserti 01/11/2020 at 14:42

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I wish we had geothermal here. Unfortunately to get something warm enough, it’s about 2 km down, from what I hear. Although I’ve also heard abandoned oil wells can potentially be used for geothermal here.

I think it’s an energy source that is vastly underutilized, at least in North America.

gin-san - shitpost specialist > DipodomysDeserti 01/11/2020 at 15:05

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My knowledge of anything geothermal starts and ends with Japanese onsen.

facw > DipodomysDeserti 01/11/2020 at 15:08

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Sorry, closest I’ve been to that topic is the Blue Lagoon in Iceland

Not a natural feature, it is fed by outflow from a nearby geothermal plant:

It was a fairly relaxing way to start our trip to Iceland though, nice to decompress after flying.

In any event, I think you need to make a trip to Iceland as part of your research.

ClassicDatsunDebate > someassemblyrequired 01/11/2020 at 17:11

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You’re describing a closed loop plant that uses man made wells. I believe there are also geothermal plant that take advantage of natural stream fissures which are single cycle. The problem with recovering all that latent heat after the turbine is....what do you use it for? We usually don’t build a city near a natural steam fissure. So you build a spa I guess...lol

Regarding waste energy recovery, I’ve been involved in some community heat projects where you take the latent energy in sewage (which averages around 7c all year round, and use it to provide ‘heated’ air in the winter and ‘cooled’ air in the summer. It really drops the delta between ambient air and conditioned air.

Neato stuff, but I question the long term maintenance costs for the residents.

someassemblyrequired > ClassicDatsunDebate 01/11/2020 at 17:28

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Ha yes yeah generally it’s not a good idea to build your city right next to geothermal areas. I’ve heard of some district heating in Iceland.

That’s cool about the sewage being used to reduce the delta - but heat exchangers in general are usually a maintenance PITA.  How do they do it with sewage?   I would think that would be all kinds of trouble but it sounds interesting.

sn4cktimes > facw 01/11/2020 at 17:37

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There’s some rocks in the far left corner of the lower central pool (just outside pic) that I hooked my arms around and took an hour  nap while floating. Wife came back with a drink to find me fast asleep; she let me sleep a while before waking me up. 

DipodomysDeserti > someassemblyrequired 01/11/2020 at 17:40

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My project is dealing with a specific location and the research was initially requested by a commercial interest.

This is a natural source, which produces wastewater clean enough to be returned to a marsh.

DipodomysDeserti > ClassicDatsunDebate 01/11/2020 at 17:41

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This project is dealing with a unique site and the analysis was requested by a commercial interest who’s looking to innovate.

someassemblyrequired > DipodomysDeserti 01/11/2020 at 18:14

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Yeah since the outflow from the turbine needs to be relatively high quality, there is still quite a bit of latent heat and even temperature left which can be recovered . It should be possible to do something with it - though whether that’s cost effective is another question (obviously the use should be in close proximity to minimize cost/thermal losses ).

ClassicDatsunDebate > someassemblyrequired 01/11/2020 at 18:53

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The heat exchangers are usually built into the bottom of the sewer pipe because they only run partially full. It doesn’t have an arduous path like a plate and frame or shell and tube....that would get messy...lol  

ClassicDatsunDebate > DipodomysDeserti 01/11/2020 at 18:55

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Cool....geo is kinda in fashion now a days.  Probably lots of project opportunities in the near future

DipodomysDeserti > ClassicDatsunDebate 01/11/2020 at 21:54

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My degree will be in environmental resource management with a focus on water management. I jumped at this opportunity as it’ll give me a foot in the door with sustainable community development in regards to water use. This is my first foray into geothermal energy. Pretty interesting stuff.

someassemblyrequired > ClassicDatsunDebate 01/11/2020 at 22:53

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Ha yes - I was wondering if they would have a special configuration to avoid cross contamination between the two sides of the system. Makes sense - just having the two pipes run next to each other would make a pretty decent low-maintenance heat exchanger with a long enough run.