Abstract
The scattered hot springs on the globe are natural thermal energy storages that are available for industrial and recreational advantages. A hot spring is a hydrothermal system that can be used for power generation purposes as well as deep-well geothermal plants. Harnessing energy from hot springs is a practical approach for a future with sustainable power supply. Therefore, there is a demand for a comprehensive study for the estimation of power generation capacity of hot springs based on their mass flow rate and temperature. A techno-enviro-economic study is conducted to estimate the power generation capacity of hot springs as a heat source of the organic Rankine cycle. The organic Rankine cycle plant is modeled and simulated for various temperatures and mass flow rates of hot springs in the present study. The impacts of the temperature and mass flow rate of hot springs on the technical and economic aspects of the power generation plants are investigated. For the hot springs with temperature and discharge mass flow rate from 60 to 90 °C and 5 to 50 kg/s, respectively, the power generation capacity alters from 9.3 kW to 303 kW and the levelized energy cost is from 0.02 $/kWh to 0.11 $/kWh. The results indicate that the hot springs with a higher temperature and discharge mass flow rate have a higher thermal efficiency and power generation capacity for the organic Rankine cycle plant while payback period, levelized energy cost, and specific investment cost shrink. The hot springs with higher temperatures and/or larger discharge mass flow rates are financially ideal candidates for initiating the power generation plants.
Highlights
The accessibility of energy resources is an essential concern for each community
The results are based on the hot spring mass flow rate at different temperatures of hot water in the hot spring and pressure of the evaporator in a single-stage organic Rankine cycle (ORC) .As can be seen, by increasing the mass flow rate of the hot spring, the power generation grows, while it can be intensified by the growth of water temperature in the hot spring
With the idea of improving the sustainability of the energy systems, this study focused on providing a guideline in harnessing an important low-temperature renewable energy source
Summary
The accessibility of energy resources is an essential concern for each community. While near 80% of primary energy comes from fossil fuels [1], projects are in progress to achieve half of the electricity generation from renewable sources by 2030 [2]. Mud pool, and geysers are functional for hydrothermal systems in geothermal fields [11] These media are commonly used in the direct utilization of geothermal energy for agricultural, swimming pool, and greenhouse purposes [12]. The indirect utilization of geothermal energy is implemented for electricity power production [13], like Chena hot springs commercial power plant that generates 210 kW of electricity power with 8.2% thermal efficiency [14]. Using deep wells for serving the geothermal energy plant may increase the risk of geological changes, but utilizing hot springs with a natural eruption system as a heat source decreases the environmental impact in geothermal power plants[20]. The organic Rankine cycle (ORC) is an environmentally friendly approach for generating power proposed to utilize low-grade heat sources [22]. When water implemented as the working fluid, the following conditions must be considered [30]:
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