Study On Selection Of Geothermal Power Generation Systems With Particular Reference To Djibouti’s Geothermal Well A-3

A coastal country located in the horn of Africa,Djibouti enjoys a privileged geographical position,between Africa,Asia and Europe.It’s status as a model of stability in an otherwise volatile region is one of its greatest assets.It lies on the Bab El-Mandeb strait,a gateway to the Suez Canal,which is one of the world’s busiest shipping routes.Djibouti also provides a vital port for landlocked neighbor Ethiopia,even more important now as a railway between both their capitals is completed.Chinese-led infrastructure projects-including the construction of air and maritime ports-are present here.It also is home to more foreign bases.Because of the growing economy and population,the energy demand in the country is increasing rapidly and is becoming an issue since Djibouti’s energy supply mainly depends on fossil fuel resources which is non-renewable and there is not national reserve of fossil fuel.Renewable energy has to be developed rapidly in order to reach energy security and to ensure economic development as well as to tackle environmental issues such as climate change.The geothermal resource has a large potential to help Djibouti in achieving these goals.This thesis focuses on the thermodynamic and scaling analysis of geothermal power generation systems with particular reference to Djibouti’s geothermal well A-3.Using engineering equation solver(EES)as analytical software,a detailed thermodynamic and scaling analysis study of different geothermal power plants has been carried out for five power generation systems: single-flash(SF),double-flash(DF),flash-organic Rankine cycle(FORC),double-flash-organic Rankine cycle(DFORC)and ORC System.By choosing the maximum net power output as an objective function,optimization has been done based on comparisons among the five systems.The results indicate that the DFORC system should be ruled out from the selection pool due to its scaling problem as well as its relatively low net power output.Under the condition that the operation of each system ensures that there is no scaling problem,the net power output from high to low is in the following order: FORC(3723 kW),DF(3335 kW),SF(2737 kW),and ORC(2592 kW).Since the net power generated by the FORC is only slightly higher than that of the DF system,further techno-economic analysis should be carried out to find out the most cost-effective power generation system for Djibouti’s geothermal well A-3.