Utilization Waste Brine Water Separator for Binary Electric Energy Conversion in Geothermal Wells

Abstract

Nowadays, geothermal is one of the most environmentally friendly energy that can replace the role of fossils energy by converting steam to electricity. Brine is one of the by-products of the production of geothermal wells that are generally not used or simply re-injected. In fact, brine can be converted into electricity using the binary cycle process. In binary cycle, brine from separator is used as a heater of working fluid and transform it into a vapor phase. The vapor will be used to turn turbines and generators to produce electricity. The working fluid selection in accordance with the heating fluid temperature becomes important because it results in optimization of the thermodynamic cycle. The temperature of the wellhead in the geothermal field will decrease 3% per year and reducing the heating fluid temperature in heat exchanger. So, in this paper intends to utilizes brine to heat the heat exchanger by using iso-butane, n-pentane, and iso-pentane because its critical temperature can be stable at 193℃ wellhead temperatures. From the results of predictions from brain 2 production well for 17 years with iso-butane in this binary cycle planning, can utilize waste brine water separator to converse electric energy to produce 4 MWh electricity.