The Impact of Soil Hydrothermal Properties on Geothermal Power Generation (GPG): Modeling and Analysis

Zhengguang Liu, Gaoyang Hou, Ying Song, Hessam Taherian and Shuaiwei Qi
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Zhengguang Liu: Department of Power and Electrical Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
Gaoyang Hou: Department of Power and Electrical Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
Ying Song: Department of Power and Electrical Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
Hessam Taherian: School of Science, Engineering, and Technology, Pennsylvania State University, Harrisburg, PA 17057, USA
Shuaiwei Qi: Department of Power and Electrical Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China

Energies, 2022, vol. 15, issue 2, 1-12

Abstract: Geothermal power plants have become the main application that utilizes geothermal energy. The utilization of deep geothermal energy adheres great importance to the soil condition. One of the biggest challenges faced by geothermal power plant designers is to reduce the risk of soil exploration. To solve this problem, forecasting by modeling has proven to be an important tool to address the problem. In this research, a geo-model was established by modeling three geological layers with different hydraulic and thermal properties to solve the above dilemma. The layers, elevation, and fault zones were simulated using interpolation functions from an artificial dataset. The coupled porous media flow and heat transfer problem using Darcy’s law, as well as heat transfer in porous media interfaces, were studied. The evolution of the flow field, hydrothermal performance, and temperature gradient were also analyzed for a period of 10 years. The results showed the recoverable thermal energy area gradually moved downwards during the 10-year simulation time. When the distance between the recharge well and the production well exceeded 200 m, the collection efficiency was significantly decreased. After 5 years of extraction, the power generation efficiency of the heat source will be less than 9.75%. These results effectively avoided the exploration cost of geothermal power plant site selection, which is significant for the efficiency improvement of geothermal energy.

Keywords: geothermal power generation; geological modeling; soil hydrothermal properties; renewable energy; geothermal energy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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