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U.S. DOE provides US$20m for seven R&D projects

U.S. DOE provides US$20m for seven R&D projects Oil Well in Reagan County, Texas - not related to story (source: flickr/ J. Stephen Conn, creative commons)
Alexander Richter 16 Sep 2010

Seven geothermal R&D projects have been awarded US$20m from the U.S. Department of Energy for research on low temperature technology, oil and gas co-production, and high-pressured fluid resources.

Already announced earlier this week, “Seven geothermal energy research and development projects have been awarded a share of $20 million from the US Department of Energy (DOE).

The projects will look into the technical and economic feasibility of “non-conventional” technologies in the field of geothermal energy – deriving energy from the heat of rocks deep underground, usually by injecting a fluid like water down wells to capture the heat.

It will include work on generating energy from low-temperature geothermal fluids, making use of geothermal fluids recovered from oil and gas wells and the use of highly-pressurized geothermal fluids.

The DOE said this week its funding program would aim to demonstrate and commercialize technologies that could lower the high costs of geothermal development.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu said: “The development of these technologies will allow us to tap into additional renewable energy resources, reduce carbon pollution and create new jobs.”

Low-temperature: In particular, the low-temperature technology could open up many more geothermal resources to power generation uses, it said. Most low-temperature geothermal reservoirs are not hot enough to drive steam turbines to generate power.

Binary cycle technologies offer one answer, in which the relatively low-temperature water from geothermal reservoirs is used to vaporize a different material – called a “working fluid” – that has a much lower boiling point, and once vaporized can turn a turbine or generator system.

Salt Lake City firm GreenFire Energy will receive $2 million to carry out field evaluations of a geothermal power plant using carbon dioxide as a working fluid at a site in Springerville, Arizona. Oksi Energy, LLC, of Reno, Nevada, will look at using a mixture of ammonia and water as a working fluid with its $2 million DOE award, at a site in Susanville, California.

California firm Energent Corporation will test out a new heat exchanger system with its $1.2 million award. Modoc Contracting Company, another California firm, will also receive $2 million, this time to look at various uses for low-temperature geothermal resources ranging from power generation and direct heating through to greenhouse operations and use in fish farms.

“These innovative projects have the potential to expand the use of geothermal energy to more areas around the country,” said Secretary Chu.

Oil and gas co-production: The Department said geothermal coproduction with oil and gas wells had a “significant” potential to generate electricity for use in oil and gas operations, or for sale to the grid.

US oil production brings up on average 10 barrels of hot water with every barrel of oil, which has traditionally been viewed as a waste product, but could be used as a source of energy.

ElectricTherm, Inc., will use its $982,000 grant to demonstrate the production of electricity co-produced in geothermal brine, using its mobile heat-to-power generator, which is looking like having an output in the 30-70 kilowatt range.

High-pressure: Meanwhile, $10 million of the DOE money will go to projects seeking to exploit highly-pressurized geothermal fluid resources.

These occur in reservoirs that may also contain dissolved natural gas that is not economical to recover alone, but could be used in combination with geothermal energy production.

The DOE said geopressured reservoirs are located along the Pacific coast, in Appalachia, beneath the Gulf of Mexico, and in other deep sedimentary basins in the United States, and that the two projects it is funding will diversify and expand the country’s potential to develop renewable geothermal energy.

Louisiana Geothermal will receive $5 million to investigate a “significant” geopressured resource in southern Louisiana and the northern Gulf of Mexico. And, New Jersey firm NRG Energy will also receive $5 million, to evaluate a geothermal reservoir for development of a power plant.”

Source: Brighter Energy