ElectraTherm commissions low heat geothermal plant in Nevada
Florida Canyon Mine, Nevada (source: GeoMine)
Alexander Richter
26 Apr 2013
ElectraTherm commissions second Green Machine geothermal power plant using its ORC technology to generate power from low heat geothermal resources, in Nevada.
In a release today, U.S. firm ElectraTherm celebrated the successful commissioning of its 4100C Green Machine at the Florida Canyon Mine in Imlay, Nevada. This marks the second geothermal project utilizing low-temperature (170-240°F/77-116°C) geothermal brine to generate electricity, following the start up of a Series 4000 Green Machine in Romania last fall.
ElectraTherm marked the occasion at Florida Canyon Mine with a commissioning ceremony including officials from the Department of Energy (DOE) and Jipangu International, the mine operator. Attendees representing the mining and utility industries also joined in a tour of the newly developed Green Machine, the 4100C. The machine was manufactured with a cleanable heat exchanger, an increased power output of up to 75kWe and a fully-containerized solution for ease of transportation and installation through a grant from the DOE for $982,000. This also marks the first installation where ElectraTherm is providing not only the ORC equipment but ORC power generation as a metered service.
This follows the commissioning of a Series 4000 Green Machine at a geothermal well in Romania. The Green Machine produces 50kW (gross) of electricity from the geothermal hot water (216°F/102°C) without any fuel or emissions, and has reached 2,200 hours of run time. To further increase the application’s efficiency, once geothermal water has passed through the heat exchangers to pressurize the Green Machine working fluid, it continues on to heat nearby residential buildings in the winter.
ElectraTherm’s Green Machine utilizes organic Rankine cycle (ORC) technology to generate electricity from low temperatures unattainable by other technologies. First, hot water enters the Green Machine to boil a working fluid into a vapor. The high pressure vapor expands through ElectraTherm’s patented twin screw power block, spinning an electric generator. After turning the twin screw expander, the vapor is then condensed back into a liquid through the use of an external air cooled condenser. Following condensing, the working fluid flows back to the evaporator as a liquid to repeat the process.
“The Green Machine captures geothermal heat to generate power at temperatures and flows most ORC technologies cannot attain,” said Mike Olari, President of Energy Power Holdings, ElectraTherm’s eastern European distributor. “The robustness of the machine and the ease of installation make this application easily repeatable for the vast low-temperature geothermal resources available in Romania and Hungary.”
According to reports by Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, there are tens of thousands of oil and gas wells in the U.S. alone that co-produce hot water at optimal temperatures for the Green Machine. This produces millions of barrels of water which could be captured as fuel to generate clean power. Through collaboration with the DOE and commercial installations such as in Romania, ElectraTherm will continue to make inroads with this tremendous untapped resource. ”
Source: Company release via Marketwire
