GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

By Reuben S George

[DATE]
THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ENGINEERING
Mysore-570008
Introduction
Geothermal Energy is the energy obtained by the heat energy that present in the earth’s surface. The
word Geothermal which comes from two words “geo” meaning earth and “thermal” meaning heat.
The earth’s resources are divided into four spheres lithosphere, atmosphere, biosphere and
hydrosphere. Here, the biosphere provides bioenergy, atmosphere provides wind energy, hydrosphere
provides tidal energy and lithosphere is the source of geothermal energy. These sources are renewable
sources of energy which can utilised based on location. As we know the fossil fuel resources have
been depleting and its use in massive scale have resulted in various catastrophes including increasing
cost of energy supply despite the fact that building devices that consume these sources are cheaper.
Now, that many nations have pledged to go Carbon neutral by the year 2050.
This has been in practise since the Roman civilisation where many geothermal pools have been
established which was believed as a medication for some skin problems. Later, in the 19 th century
some parts of USA used this as a source of heating during harsh winter seasons. The large-scale
application as a source of electricity came to effect in the year 1904 in Larderello Italy. This resulted
in places like New Zealand going 80% geothermal by the year 1958 and later Iceland depending on
geothermal energy for 30% and hydro energy for 69.97% making one of the nations that are almost
100% CO2 emission free energy consumption nations resulting in increased tourism and other thriving
industry despite the fact that there is very little use of Oil and gas industry. What is also surprising is
that manufacturing industries are highly dependent on this and form the 80% of customer base. This
has proven the myth that renewable energy cannot be used by power hungry commercial
establishments.
In this paper we would talk about the different types of methods to obtain geothermal utilising the
geology of the location. In this manner, a majority of the civilisation can consume energy by going
Carbon neutral.

Origins
The earth’s lithosphere as we know is divided into multiple layers in the form of crust and core of
which the core is the fluid portion which is formed due to high heat generated from decaying
radioactive sources which has been estimated to be around 540x107 EJ out of which only 10% is
required to meet the global energy demands. This has resulted in formation many hot springs which
takes place as the hot magma comes in contact with water bodies present in the surface layers of the
earth resulting in hot water with additional deposits of minerals like sulphur but that occurs only on
those areas with permeable layers could lead to such geological formations which means only those
places could exploit such abundant energy.

Fig (1) Sectional view of Earth’s Lithosphere Fig (2) Hot springs
Well, there is also another way geothermal energy can be found. As see in Fig (1) the multiple layers
of soil and rocks are placed in a way that they exert high pressure energy on the descending layers
resulting in an increase in temperatures as high as 20°C per kilometre with increasing height below
the surface leading to formation of Enhanced Geothermal Systems.
Firstly, geothermal energy has been used since pre-historic times in the form of hot springs and
thermal pools for cooking, for washing and for therapeutic purposes. Archaeological evidence shows
that the first human use of geothermal resources occurred more than 10,000 years ago. But it was in
the 14thcentury when the first geothermal heating system was installed in the centre of the French
town of Chaudes-Aigues. Nowadays there are many more examples of the use of geothermal energy,
in which hot water is pumped from deep within the earth for domestic, commercial and industrial
uses. Although electricity was first generated from geothermal steam in 1904 at a geyser in Italy it
was not until 1958in New Zealand that electricity obtained from steam-operated turbines was first
produced commercially. This form of generating electricity is now common place in many countries
with hydro-thermal resources close to the surface.

Types of Geothermal Energy

 Low Enthalpy geothermal energy: -This type of system generates thermal energy up to
temperatures of 85°C which can be found anywhere by just building closed or open looped
circuit deep down the surface based on the temperature gradient of the surface with respect to
that region. It is used in heat pumps which is used to heat various commercial and residential
establishments, aquaculture, pools for recreation, fish farming to enhance quality of the
species being cultured based on the optimal temperature. This has begun to be widely used
since the 19th century a few areas in USA and other nations like Ireland. This has been
gaining attention as the installation is simple and doesn’t require fossil fuel making it an eco-
friendly option and cheaper in the long run than natural gas. Many governments are providing
incentives for homes to switch to this source of heating. Companies like Dandelion X use this
technology for heating and cooling of buildings without any emission

Low Enthalpy Geothermal Energy

 High Enthalpy geothermal energy: -This type of system generates thermal energy resulting
in temperatures from 250°C to 300°C which result in a highly supersaturated steam which can
a generate a large amount of energy causing the turbine to spin so fast resulting in Energy
 plants generating more than 100MW.It is location specific and unlike low enthalpy system
cannot be used for direct application due unfavourable temperatures conditions. This is
mainly used to generate electricity for the local population. It is always located in a
geothermal hotspot which is comprised of water or any other fluid lower boiling point in
contact with these spots resulting in formation super saturated steam at that given pressure
resulting in rotation of a turbine thus generating EMF resulting in generation of electricity.

High Enthalpy geothermal Plant in Iceland

Enhanced Geothermal Systems

As we have seen geothermal systems come with a downside are mostly dependant on location of
geothermal hotspots along with limited demand and investments resulted in less research and
development and that too only in limited areas. As a solution, Enhanced Geothermal Systems have
been found as an option which can be obtained in almost all the places especially in the majority of
places away from geothermal hotspots.
This requires only an elevation up to 3-7 km which results in cheaper setup costs compared to Oil and
Natural Gas extraction as shown here. The plots indicated with star are the ones for Enhanced
Geothermal Systems, the ones with square indicate fossil fuels and darkened squares indicate
Geothermal Systems.

Depth vs Cost comparing all sources Sectional view of Enhanced Geothermal System
 Extraction process
This system consists of the underground i.e., earth’s crust which is injected by three wells of which
one is an injection well which injects the geothermal fluid which in this case is water and two are
production wells that help the highly energised water in its steam form to rise above the ground the
strike the blades of the turbine leading resulting in torque and thus rotation takes place which later
generates electricity
Due to dependency on fossil fuels for the past 2 centuries, our expertise in fields like exploration and
drilling have reached to its finest stage which has given the most optimised drilling and earth moving
equipment and considering decades of research and development by companies like Bosch,
Larsen&Toubro etc, we are now ready to explore and exploit the underground resources which are in
fact shallow compared to fossil fuel resources. This also means that veterans in Oil and gas industry
can make use of this opportunity to reuse their skills into renewable energy. Which also tells us that
investment in development programs is very small reducing the time required to begin the project
along with project completion time thus bringing rise to rapid setups of renewable power supply
plants.

Abandoned Oil Wells

Now that we have understood what exactly EGC is, which are the locations do you think would be a
potential geothermal hotspot (not necessarily hot springs)? It could be an abandoned oil well. This is
because oil and natural gas has already been explored and exploited to it limits which are now sealed.
This gives us the location of hotspots which aid time and cost saving when it comes to exploration.
This could also be another way of motivating firms to seal the abandoned oil wells as fast as possible
which could prevent contamination of drinking water due residual oils and natural gas stuck between
the particles that in fact has led to many cases of contamination leading consequences such as
poisoning of water and food.

Present Status
As of today, very few places make use of geothermal energy due to lack of investment compared to
solar and wind which has led to very little exploration which means that the expertise in this field has
been low. Iceland is said to be the most reliant from geothermal energy for both domestic, industrial
and commercial purposes.

Implementation in India: -There is a sign of hope as the Government of India recently begun the
construction of geothermal energy plant in Puga Valley which generates electricity around 250MW
which in fact proves to be more reliable than hydro power due to freezing temperature conditions.
This is being taken by the Oil & Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC). This has shown that despite the
financial difficulties, the government has taken this initiative in small steps. Here are a few solutions
which India can look at: -
 Research & Development: - The government can encourage research in public institutions
like IISc, CSIR etc. Now that India has pledged to go carbon neutral by 2070, we have very
little time left which means that the research must take place at an accelerated pace. The
government can also enable a collaboration between its public institutions Oil and Gas
Companies encouraging them to research due their higher technical expertise in exploration.
 Awareness programmes: - This brings in an initiative from the local population in order to
increase the consumer base for this source of energy accelerating the setup process.
 Using CFD and AI: -Due to advances in technology and India is blessed with an abundant
workforce who are specialised in the field of Computer Science could lead to more lead to
more research and development of algorithms which deal with cost estimation, terrain
suitability, environmental impact assessments, etc which is dine using Machine Learning that
is able to generate algorithms based in the data obtained by the Geographical Survey of India
(GSI).
In the case of CFD, we can not only optimise blade design, but also optimise heat transfer,
increase safety what is also interesting is the outcome that comes from integrating AI as the
algorithms gives us the most optimal design based on its predictions from the algorithms
which makes material design easier and brings in detailed safety analysis.