An Integrated Model to Compare Net Electricity Generation for Carbon Dioxide- and Water-Based Geothermal Systems

Utilization of supercritical CO2 as a geothermal fluid instead of water has been proposed by Brown in 2000 and its advantages have been discussed by him and other researchers such as Karsten Pruess and Fouillac. This work assesses the net electricity that could be generated by using supercritical CO2 as a geothermal working fluid and compares it with water under the same temperature and pressure reservoir conditions. This procedure provides a method of direct comparison of water and CO2 as geothermal working fluids, in terms of net electricity generation over time given a constant geothermal fluid flow rate.;An integrated three-part model has been developed to determine net electricity generation for CO2- and water-based geothermal reservoirs. This model consists of a wellbore model, reservoir simulation, and surface plant simulation. To determine the bottomhole pressure and temperature of the geothermal fluid (either water or CO2) in the injection well, a wellbore model was developed using fluid-phase, thermodynamic equations of state, fluid dynamics, and heat transfer models. A computer program was developed that solves for the temperature and pressure of the working fluid (either water or CO 2) down the wellbore by simultaneously solving for the fluid thermophysical properties, heat transfer, and frictional losses.;For the reservoir simulation, TOUGH2, a general purpose numerical simulator has been used to model the temperature and pressure characteristics of the working fluid in the reservoir. The EOS1 module of TOUGH2 has been used for the water system and the EOS2 module of the TOUGH2 code has been employed for the CO2 case.;The surface plant is simulated using CHEMCAD, a chemical process simulator, to determine the net electricity generated. A binary organic (iso-pentane) Rankine cycle is simulated. The calculated net electricity generated for the optimized water and CO2 systems are compared over the working time of the reservoir. Based on the theoretical calculations in this work and other specifications assumed, water is found to produce nearly 50-60% more cumulative net electricity in initial 10 years of electricity generation than CO2 (depending on the flow rates; 50% corresponds to 40 kg/s and 60% corresponds to 120 kg/s) keeping all other parameters exactly same. This number goes down to 25-35% more after 30 years of continuous power generation.