Developments in geothermal energy in Mexico—part thirty-six. The commissioning of a heat pump assisted brine purification system

Abstract

Any system which extracts useful energy from a geothermal source is limited by the effectiveness of the heat transfer between the geothermal fluid, which has a tendency to scale, and the relevant components of the system. A heat pump can be used to maintain a temperature difference between two vessels containing pure water and geothermal brine which is sufficient to enable pure water vapour to flow continuously from the geothermal brine vessel to the pure water vessel. A mechanical vapour compression heat pump using R114 as the working fluid and designed to deliver more than 50 kW of heat has been incorporated in a brine purification system at the Los Azufres geothermal field. This system has been successfully commissioned and is operating as designed and theoretically predicted.