Geothermal

The largest share of the ORC installed capacity in the world exploits geothermal energy resources. Due to its thermodynamical characteristics, ORC is the technology that suits best the development of most of the world’s geothermal power remaining potential

Geothermal electricity generation is the most developed application for Organic Rankine Cycles (ORC) which are perfectly adapted to low and medium temperature geothermal resources and when it's prohibitive to make the deployment of steam cycle plants.

The main applications for ORC in this sector are:

  • ORC for low and medium temperature resources (100 to 180°C): ORC allows reinjecting the totality of the geothermal resources and facilitate the management of non-condensable gases, such as CO2 and H2S. Our 1 and 2 stage plants are optimized for each project's characteristics in order to offer the best profitability of the project.

  • Existing flash plants output improvement: The output of flash-type geothermal power plants can be significantly enhanced by the valorization of the heat content of the brine outlet from the separators, previously injected without any recovery, with an ORC bottoming unit. 

  • ORC for steam resources, designed to fully exploit the low or medium-sized steam resources while using the brines for preheating.

  • Well head units: The ORC technology is suitable for exploiting the brine resources of new wells pending the installation of conventional large-scale plants or as a more economical replacement of them.

  • ORC CHP: Our 2-stages ORC CHPs are designed for summer and winter operation, maximizing the electricity generation while supplying heat to a district heating network in winter.

Figure 1 - Simplified PFD of a two-stage geothermal ORC

Enertime started in the 1st semester of 2021 a feasibility study (FASEP) aiming to assess the techno-economical potential of installing ORC bottoming units to repower existing flash power plants in Mexico, owned by CFE, the public electric utility of the country. The study is made in partnership with Suez Consulting and Hartree Partners, and financed by the French Treasury. 

Figure 2 - Geothermal sites in Mexico where the potential for the installation of ORC bottoming units is being assessed by Enertime.

See our technical brochure for further information on our offer for geothermal power generation.

Download our factsheet for "Geothermal"

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