An Approach to Optimum Route and Site Selection of a Steam Gathering System for Geothermal Power Plants Using Multiple Weight Distance Transform

Abstract

This article proposes a new approach to select the location for separators and routes for two phase flow pipelines in a geothermal steam gathering system. Multiple weight distance transform is presented and used to find the optimum location of site for a steam separator based on the flow capacity of geothermal wells. The routes are monotonic and the incline is slight in order to minimize the pressure drop and the slug flow conditions in the pipeline. A map with weighted distance for five wells shows the accessible area and the route from each well is calculated. The optimum site location reduces the total pipe length from all wells by 9%.