GRC Transactions, Vol.

41, 2017

An Overview of Binary ORC Technology with Focus on

Turboden’s Revamp of Lightning Dock Plant in New Mexico

Rocco Altieri, Joseph Bonafin, Clotilde Rossi di Schio, Cem Zulfikar

Turboden, via Cernaia 10, 25124 Brescia, Italy

info@turboden.it

Keywords

Geothermal, power plant, revamping, ORC, binary, US, medium enthalpy, low enthalpy,
distributed generation, renewable energy

ABSTRACT

This paper is aimed at providing an overview of the binary ORC technology of Turboden. The
history of the company, its experience in the field, and power plant components are described in
order to gather insight on the technology provided by Turboden.

A brief look into the domestic geothermal market in the USA is provided to present a panorama
of the market.

Furthermore, the paper sheds light on Turboden’s approach to revamp the Lightning Dock plant
in New Mexico, USA. The adopted solution to overcome challenges is outlined.

1. Turboden and the ORC technology

Turboden Spa is an Italian company founded in 1980 with the mission of designing the most
efficient ORC turbo generators for the production of heat and electrical power. Striving to
developing new solutions to overcome challenges, over the years, Turboden evolved into a world
leader in supplying ORC units with more than 320 plants installed. In 2009, the company
became a part of UTC group before being acquired by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 2013.

The ORC technology utilizes heat to generate electricity and thermal power from renewable
sources including biomass, solar, geothermal energy and waste heat from industrial processes,
engines or gas turbines, or from the incineration or the gasification of waste. While many factors
contribute into the efficiency of ORC power plants, they typically provide a thermodynamic
 Zulfikar, Altieri and Rossi di Schio

advantage in terms of power production over conventional steam technology for resources at
moderate temperatures, and can also be utilized for lower temperatures for which the steam
technology is not considered feasible.

2. Experience of Turboden in geothermal applications

Turboden completed its first geothermal plants in Italy and Africa in the early Nineties. In 2001,
a 1 MW plant was commissioned in Altheim, Austria. After several years of focus on other
markets, Turboden has recently built a 1,700 kW plant in Soultz-sous-Forets (France), the first
EGS (Engineered Geothermal System) plant in Europe. The water, injected under pressure,
reaches deep impermeable rocks fractured by the drilling where it is heated at 180°C. In Q4 2012
Turboden started up the first supercritical ORC plant in Europe, a 500 kW prototype with hybrid
direct cooling, and tested its flexibility with highly variable heat input. Turboden has made plant
performance optimization a top priority and has thus won a tight competition achieving the
award of tender for the design, construction and start-up of 3 geothermal ORC plants in Bavaria
(5+ MW each). These plants have been successfully commissioned and started-up in Q1 2013.
Geothermal water at 140 °C is pumped from a depth of approximately 4,000 metres. These
plants are air-cooled and carefully integrated into the rural context and prepared to supply heat to
the existing district heating network.

A further 5 MW geothermal plant is commissioned in the Oita prefecture in Japan, Kyushu

Island. This plant uses a geothermal source with about 15% steam quality at 140 °C.

After focusing on the Turkish geothermal market, a 3 MW ORC plant has been awarded to
Turboden and has been delivered to the municipality of Afyonkarahisar (Turkey). It exploits a
110 °C geothermal liquid source by means of an ORC which is water cooled. This plant
demonstrates that small-scale / low-temperature ORC plants are feasible, even in less subsidized
markets.

Finally, one of the world’s largest power output by a single turbine in a binary system has been
achieved by the turbine manufactured by Turboden for a Turkish customer in Velika Ciglena,
Croatia. The turbine has a power output of 16.5 MW including a 1.5 MW NCG expansion
turbine.

3. U.S. geothermal industry

The U.S. industry had about 3.7 GW of installed nameplate capacity and 2.71 GW of net
capacity at the end of 2015 and brought online 70 MW at two plant expansions in Nevada. In the
U.S, geothermal electric power plants are mostly located in California, Nevada, Utah and Hawaii
with recent installations in Alaska, Idaho, New Mexico, Oregon, and Wyoming. In the years
2011-2015, about 350 MWe have been added. There was little growth in geothermal capacity in
2015 because of cheap fossil fuel substitutes like natural gas and improperly designed tax
incentives that favor other renewables over geothermal power. However, geothermal generation
 Zulfikar, Altieri and Rossi di Schio

continues to grow steadily as developers bring the occasionally new plant online, expand existing
facilities, or find ways to make current plants more efficient [Geothermal Energy Association,
2016]

Figure 1: U.S. Utility Scale Geothermal Generation

4. Lightning Dock geothermal field

The Lightning Dock geothermal resource area is located on the east side of Animas Valley in
Hidalgo County, New Mexico. The area was identified as a Known Geothermal Resource Area
on 1974 [Parker et al., 1988]. Lightning Dock area is home to the biggest greenhouse complex in
the U.S. In 2013 a 4 MW plant was realized, with plans to further enhance it to 10 MW.
However, the second phase of the development was never realized. The site is at 4236 ft above
mean sea level, with an average ambient temperature of 60 °F.

5. Revamp of the Lightning Dock geothermal plant

Turboden was selected to perform a complete revamp of the power plant of Lightning Dock
geothermal. Turboden offered to provide a power plant producing 11.2 MW net (14 MW gross)
electric power with a single ORC turbine.

The plant is currently under construction and it is planned to be in operation in the first quarter of
2019. The client was able to sign with the local utility a PPA for a period of 20 years.

The plant is designed to exploit geothermal brine from existing geothermal wells. Isobutane is
the design working fluid selected by Turboden in its approach to efficiently harness the
 Zulfikar, Altieri and Rossi di Schio

geothermal fluid readily available in the area. The choice of the working fluid was made after
other alternatives were carefully studied. Other fluids such as pentane have been put onto test but
they have failed to deliver results as efficient as isobutane.

The plant has been configured to utilize a single turbine. A diagram to illustrate the configuration
of the plant is included below. The power plant is composed by heat exchangers, a single turbine
directly coupled with a generator, a recuperator, a condenser, and feed pumps. The plant will be
fed by 5000 gal/min of geothermal brine at 310 °F. After cooling in the plant heat exchangers,
the brine will be returned to the reinjection wells at about 170 °F.

• Taking into consideration the low corrosivity potential of the geothermal water observed in the
previous installation, the material adopted for the parts in contact with geothermal water is the
carbon steel (e.g. tube sheet, distributor channel, partition plate and heat exchanger tubes).
Likewise, on the ORC working fluid side, carbon steel has been employed. The plant operator
suggested the minimum reinjection temperature to be considered in the plant design, in order to
avoid any risk of deposition of silica or other solids.

• The single turbine designed and manufactured by Turboden is axial, multistage and runs at
1800 rpm. The Turbine is directly coupled to the electric generator. The turbine design inlet
pressure is about 400 psi. The expected turbine isentropic efficiency is about 90% (total to static,
including all the stage losses). The axial geometry is the most suitable to achieve high efficiency
in the widest range of operation; it is expected in fact a derating of the efficiency of only -1%
during summer operation, and -4% during winter operation. The turbine is designed to maximize
the energy production according to the Lightning Dock site ambient conditions.

• The air-cooled condenser is composed by a large number of bundles interconnected to each

other in parallel. To limit the influences of different condensing pressure of the bundles (e.g. fans
of one bay out of order), the pipeline, where the liquid phase is collected, foresees a routing with
the presence of a syphon/vapor trap. The design of the air-cooled condenser is made by
Turboden. Considering the favorable properties of the working fluid, which is never under
vacuum, it is expected to operate the condenser at constant volumetric flow (air-side) to
maximize the energy production. This implies no variable speed drivers for the fans.

• The ORC working fluid feed pumps are centrifugal multi-stage, driven by 3-phase motors
connected to a frequency converter in order to achieve optimal control and to minimize the
power consumption. This solution is required particularly considering the operating pressure of
the working fluid; in fact, the traditional solution of pump regulation by means of valves would
significantly decrease the net energy production.

The operation of the ORC turbogenerator is automatic, continuous monitoring by personnel

during operation will not be required. The ORC turbogenerator can operate at partial load, the
process and the generated electric power vary self-adapting automatically to the available
thermal power.
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Figure 2: Organic Rankine Cycle Diagram

Conclusion

The project is an interesting example on how an improved design and technologies can be
utilized for revamping older plants and create a positive business case, due to the expected higher
plant availability and increased efficiency.

The project is under construction and its expected start up is in Q1 2019, thus a thorough
evaluation will be made and reported when the project will be completed and operational.

REFERENCES

Bonafin J., Del Carria M., Gaia M., Duvia A.: Turboden Geothermal References in Bavaria:
Technology, Drivers and Operation, Proceedings World Geothermal Congress, Melbourne,
(2015)
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Bonafin J., Rossi di Schio C.: Turboden, a presentation of recent worldwide developments and
the latest technical solutions for large-scale geothermal ORC power-plants, Geothermal
Resource Council Annual Meeting, Reno (2015)
Energy Information Administration, 2015a. Annual Electric Generator data [WWW Document].
US Energy Inf. Adm. URL https://www.eia.gov/electricity/data/eia860/ (accessed 5.29.17)
Geothermal Energy Association, 2016 Annual US Global Geothermal Power Production [PDF
Document]. URL http://geo-energy.org/reports.aspx (accessed 5.29.17)
Parker S., Icerman L. (United States Department of Energy) New Mexico Statewide Geothermal
Energy Program, New Mexico: New Mexico Research and Development Institut (1988)