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Thermodynamics of Geothermal Energy

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 Thermodynamics of Geothermal Energy

By: Heather Kennedy

This thesis is presented in fulfillment of the requirements of course PX4011 as part of an honours
degree programme in physics at the University of Aberdeen.

2019-2020
University of Aberdeen
 Declaration

This report is entirely my composition. It has not been accepted in any previous application
for a degree. It is a record of my work and all verbatim extracts have been shown by
quotation marks. My sources of information have been specifically acknowledged.

Heather Kennedy

2
 Acknowledgements

One of the biggest inspirations for me was Marie Curie, and the amazing achievements she
made in science. She proved that even when others think you are not capable of doing what
you dream of doing, that you can if you work hard and put your mind to it.
I give huge credit to my supportive parents who have helped me throughout the years to get
to this point. My cats also aided me with their contributions to the thesis; Misty by listening
to my various discussions, and Smudge for trying to add his own ideas by lying on my
keyboard.
I would also like to thank Dr. Geoff Dunn for helping guide me through the process of
writing my thesis.

3
 Abstract

The aim of this project is to develop an understanding of geothermal energy, how it can be
used as a source of heat and its use in the generation of electricity. Therefore, explaining its
importance as an energy source for dealing with the climate crisis.
How geothermal energy is produced is established including relevant terminology to explain
the basic subsurface geology involved, comparing different heat sources depending on
location. This is then related to the potential methods for utilising geothermal energy.
The basic laws of thermodynamics, and conservation of heat (efficiency) equations are
discussed to understand how they relate to extraction of geothermal energy, and the heat to
electricity conversion efficiency.
This is done in such a way as to explain how efficient it is to use geothermal energy as a heat
source, through the medium of heat pumps, in comparison to being used to generate
electricity through the means of processes such as: dry steam, flash steam, and the binary
cycle. Referring to the thermodynamics, the efficiencies can be discussed, showing that heat
pumps are far more efficient than using geothermal heat to generate electricity.
Iceland and Britain are compared in terms of geothermal energy usage, to explain how
possible it is for Britain to rely more on geothermal energy as a source of energy like Iceland.
This would aid in dealing with the climate crisis by switching from oil and gas to geothermal.

4
 Thermodynamics of Geothermal Energy
Contents

Ch. 1 Introduction Page 6

Ch. 2 Understanding of Geothermal energy Page 7
2.1 Introduction to Geothermal Energy Page 7
2.2 Where Geothermal Energy comes from Page 7
2.3 Geothermal Gradients Page 12

Ch. 3 Thermodynamics and its Applications Page 16

3.1 Brief History of Thermodynamics Page 16
3.2 The Laws of Thermodynamics Page 17
3.3 Equations Related to Geothermal Energy Extraction Page 19

Ch. 4 Extracting Geothermal Energy Page 21

4.1 How to Extract Geothermal Energy Page 21
4.2 Converting Geothermal Heat into Electricity Page 26
4.3 Thermodynamic Connections Page 28

Ch. 5 Britain versus Iceland: a Comparison of Geothermal Energy Use Page 30

5.1 Iceland and Britain Page 30
5.2 The Problems in Fracking Page 31
5.3 Brief Prospects for the Future Page 32

Ch. 6 Conclusion Page 33

References Page 34
Bibliography Page 38
Appendix Page 39
A.1 The Carnot Cycle Page 39

5
 Chapter 1
Introduction
Geothermal energy has been used as far back as 10,000 years ago in the form of hot springs
for cooking, cleaning, and washing. However, the first industrial use of geothermal energy
was in Italy in the 18th Century. Steam coming from natural vents was used to extract boric
acid from pools, which was used in other industrial processes (PubChem, 2019). Geothermal
energy went on to be used for producing electricity in 1904, where steam was used to
produce electricity (discussed further in Chapter 4). This was achieved by Piero Ginori Conti
who invented the first geothermal electric power plant. With the oil crash in the 1973,
geothermal energy heat pumps were developed and put in use by the 1980s. Due to the
current climate change crisis being an ever-worrying reality, many countries are beginning to
consider geothermal energy as a renewable energy source (Conserve Energy Future, 2019).
The main aim of this project is to address the overall methods for using geothermal energy as
a source of energy, and how viable it would be to be used worldwide. Therefore, discussing
about its importance in helping to address the climate crisis.
However, other aims which will also be discussed are;

 Clearly explaining geothermal energy, and therefore, why it is important.

 To consider aspects of measuring and extracting geothermal energy.

 To elaborate on the wide variety of uses that geothermal energy has, and thus, its
importance.

 Discuss the thermodynamic equations that are used to understand how efficient
geothermal energy is as a heat and/or electricity source.
This thesis will begin with understanding what geothermal energy is, and its variety of
sources. To do so, the thesis will clarify the basics of the inner workings of the Earth by
putting together key phenomena including mantle plumes, spreading ridges and radioactive
decay. These concepts form the basis of techniques used to identify where to try and extract
geothermal energy in the first place using geothermal gradients. Once the basics have been
established the various uses for geothermal energy will be discussed, which leads into
extraction. This leads to the basics of thermodynamics, and its laws. These laws, along with
the conservation of energy equation, will be related to geothermal energy in a way that
explains why it is such a useful source of energy; discussing the different extraction methods
for utilizing geothermal energy to its fullest potential and how these systems, such as the heat
pump, link back to the thermodynamic equations.
The knowledge acquired throughout this thesis will finally be brought together with a
comparative study of Iceland and Britain’s current and prospective use of geothermal energy
as a source of renewable energy.

6
 Chapter 2
Understanding Geothermal Energy
2.1 Introduction to Geothermal Energy

Geothermal energy is known to be the heat from the Earth (Blodgett and Slack, 2009). This
heat comes from a variety of locations; the mantle itself (shown in figure 1) through gaps in
the crust in the form of tectonic plate boundaries and general fractures that may have
occurred due to pressure from the mantle or some other event (discussed further in 2.2); the
most common one being heat from radioactive decay (refer to 2.3).
This heat is produced by three major radioactive element’s decay: uranium, thorium, and
potassium. However, it is assumed that the core has no percentage of these elements,
whereas, the mantle has a minuscule percentage. The crust (also known as the lithosphere),
however, has approximately 67% of it containing these elements. Of course, these elements
are not the sole producers of heat in the Earth. Other processes such as friction from ocean
waves with the crust, collisions from outer space, mineral changes, and the freezing of the
iron in the inner core among others all influence the heating of the Earth (Thought Co.,
2019).
Some of these heat producers have a greater influence on the heat production from the Earth,
as will become clear in 2.2.

2.2 Where Geothermal Energy comes from

When trying to understand the processes that take place within the Earth that act as a source
of geothermal energy, there must be an understanding of the various layers of the Earth and
what is going on beneath the surface.

Figure 1: Cross-section of the Earth (Plate Tectonics RI LG, 2009)

7
The cross-section shown in figure 1, shows all the layers of the Earth, including the
atmosphere and transition zones. However, the five main layers of the Earth are: the crust,
upper mantle, lower mantle, outer core, and inner core. Each layer of the Earth plays an
important role in heating the Earth, and therefore, producing geothermal energy.
To provide some information on how the Earth is composed, each layer can be broken down
and explained separately (as depicted in figure 1). Starting from the centre of the Earth, the
inner core is composed of solid nickel and iron, it is approximately 1,128 km thick and 7,200
degrees Celsius. The outer core is liquid iron and nickel, it is approximately 2,260 km thick
and 4,300 degrees Celsius. Moving out towards the lower mantle, containing oxygen, silicon,
magnesium and iron in a viscoelastic state; it is approximately, 2,230 km thick and 3,700
degrees Celsius. Above the inner mantle, there is a transition zone which then leads to the
upper mantle. The upper mantle contains, like the lower mantle, viscoelastic oxygen, silicon,
magnesium, and iron; it is approximately, 370 km thick and 870 degrees Celsius.
The layer of the Earth that is the furthest from the centre is the crust (or lithosphere) which is
approximately 40 km thick and is of a varying temperature which does not exceed 870
degrees Celsius. Most of the heat generated in the crust is in the form of radioactive decay,
due to the high presence of many elements within it. These elements include oxygen, silicon,
aluminium, iron, calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium in a solid form as well as
uranium (Plate Tectonics RI LG, 2009), (The Earth, 2019). As well as having these elements
within the crust, the crust is composed of three different types of rock: igneous, sedimentary,
and metamorphic. Igneous rock is formed from magma from the mantle, which solidifies as it
cools when it reaches the surface (discussed further in 2.3).
Now that the basic layers of the Earth have been established it will be easier to explain the
sources of geothermal heat. The first source being linked to the Earth’s mantle.
It is a common misconception that all geothermal energy is produced due to the presence of
magma (which comes from the viscoelastic mantle), while this is not completely un-true it is
not the main producer of geothermal energy. In fact, magma for a large part does not even
need to be present for the crust to be heated in such a way that geothermal energy is
produced. A good way to explain this would be to compare Hawaii and Iceland, which have
magma plumes beneath them, and a nation which has not had running magma in millions of
years such as Britain.
In terms of understanding different parts of the world, and its vast geothermal energy
resources, the presence of a mantle plume needs to be discussed. Mantle plumes are hot rock
which has upwelled within the mantle of the Earth; however, it is considered to have
originated from the core-mantle boundary deep within the Earth. It is hotter than the
surrounding mantle itself; therefore, it forms a solidified head (as shown in figure 2). As this
mantle plume reaches the crust, it melts slightly and pushes through any mild fractures in the
crust which is known as a ‘hotspot’. The magma cools as it pushes through the crust causing
layers of rock to eventually build up, resulting in the formation of volcanoes and flood
basalts. Flood basalts are a high-volume eruption that causes the basalt lava to flood over a

8
vast area and cool forming the flood basalts (basalts are a type of igneous rock) (Self, Keynes
and Rampino, 2012).
As the basis of the formation of mantle plumes have been explained, the production of
Hawaii and its volcanoes from a mantle plume can also be explained.
Although the general idea of a mantle plume and the formation of an island has been
explained, this is a more area specific mantle plume. As discussed, a mantle plume rises from
the core, forming an outer shell and a head as it rises through the mantle. As the plume
reaches the crust it is known as a ‘hotspot’, the magma then outpours through cracks in the
crust. This liquid rock (in this case the rock basalt) solidifies due to cooling by the ocean. As
the volume of magma from the plume decreases, volcanoes begin to form in a volcanic chain
(Schmidt Ocean Institute, 2019). This is how the Tamu Massif was formed in the Pacific
Ocean off the coast of Japan (as shown in figure 2).
The following diagram shows the stages of a mantle plume being formed, to then produce
land in the form of volcanic activity in Tamu Massif.

Figure 2: A-Shows a rising mantle plume. B-the magma in the form of outpourings of basalt,
solidify to produce an oceanic plateau. C-Less voluminous activity produces a volcanic chain
(Schmidt Ocean Institute, 2019)
This is also how Hawaii was formed, due to ‘hotspot’ activity from a mantle plume
underneath the crust in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. This then resulted in the formation of
Mauna Kea, the largest volcano on Hawaii which contributed to the formation of a large part
of the island. It should also be noted that topographically (meaning height including below
sea-level) Mauna Kea is taller than Mount Everest, which shows how well ‘hotspots’ are at
producing large mountains and islands. In figure 2, there is also a volcanic trail which is
closely related to the movement of the tectonic plate. As the tectonic plate moves to the left,
the ‘hotspot’ moves position along the plate resulting in a trail of volcanoes, instead of a
stationary plate resulting in a more centralised volcanic activity. This links back to the fact
that ‘hotspots’ come from far deeper in the mantle.

9
 Comparatively, Iceland lies on the mid-Atlantic
ridge. The mid-Atlantic ridge is a divergent plate
boundary, that lies within the Atlantic Ocean. A
divergent plate boundary, meaning two tectonic
plates (which make up the crust of the Earth)
moving away from each other. It stretches
65,000km and has one of the longest mountain
chains on Earth. Although, most of these mountain
ranges are beneath the ocean. One of the areas that
it can be seen at the surface is Iceland. Iceland was
mainly formed from eruptions on the mid-Atlantic
ridge 24 million years ago. The ridge is one of the
most fascinating parts of the Earth, it is where the
North American and Eurasian plates meet and
separate. With each eruption along the ridge, new
ocean floor is created, and the plates are moved
Figure 3: Map of the mid-Atlantic ridge further away from each other. These rates of
(Heezen, B. Tharp, M., 1968) separation vary from 1cm to 20cm per year. This
process is known as seafloor spreading. The part
of the ridge that Iceland lies on is known as Reykjanes ridge (Kaushik, 2019) which runs
Southwest to Northeast through Iceland (Flovenz and Saemundsson, 1993).
As the two plates separate this allows molten rock to escape the crust in the form of lava,
which then goes on to create Iceland’s volcanoes (Kaushik, 2019). There is an interesting
comparison to how islands are created when entirely influenced by ‘hotspot’ activity such as
Hawaii. Whether the lava comes up either from a magma plume or the mid-Atlantic ridge,
volcanoes tend to form. Volcanoes are basically solidified rock formed from lava cooling
over time as it reaches the surface. The rock then gradually builds up into a mountain (which
comes in various shapes, the most common being the symmetrical-cone shaped ones) with
various vents within the volcano that magma seeps out through (Bagley, 2018) (shown below
in figure 4).

Figure 4: Simplified diagram

of composite volcano
(EnchantedLearning.com,
2018)

10
Figure 4 shows the basic cross-section of a composite volcano (when lava flows down at
different times building up the volcano). The magma is relatively close to the surface within
the crust, in the form of a magma chamber which is linked to the mantle. The magma flows
up through the pipe (conduit) towards the vent and side vents out to the surface in the form of
lava, building up the volcano more and heating the rock around it.
There are extinct (has not erupted for at least 10,000 years), dormant (an active volcano that
has not erupted yet), and active (erupted within last 10,000 years) volcanoes
(VolcanoDiscovery, 2019). The volcanoes in Iceland are active, therefore, have streams of
magma flow relatively close to the surface allowing for the rocks that make up the crust to be
heated to high temperatures.
As well as rock being heated by magma itself, as discussed above, the lithosphere (crust) is
mainly heated by radioactive decay of uranium, potassium, and thorium along with other
radioactive elements that are present within the Earth’s crust (which produces radiogenic
heat). The amount of heat that is produced from these processes are over a very long time, for
example the half-life of uranium-238 is approximately 4.5 billion years (Chemistry Learner,
2019). This coincides with the age of the Earth itself. There are three ways in which these
radioactive elements decay: beta (β) decay, alpha (α) decay and gamma (γ) decay. The
following three equations demonstrate how these processes work (Chemistry Libretexts,
2019).
Alpha (α) decay of uranium-238,
238 234
U 90Th + 42He2+
238
U 234
Th + α (E.1)

Beta (β) decay of thorium-234,

-1β + 23491Pa
234 0 (E.2)
90Th

Gamma (γ) decay of uranium-238,

238
92U
4 2+ 234
2He + 90Th + 200γ (E.3)

This radioactive decay is happening throughout the crust all over the world, and as mentioned
before 67% of all geothermal energy is produced due to radioactive decay like the processes
in equations E.1, E.2, and E.3. Therefore, the geothermal energy produced in Britain will be
due to radioactive decay, as opposed to magma flow due to the spreading ridge in Iceland and
the mantle plume (‘hotspot’ activity) in Hawaii. It should be noted that Iceland is
predominantly made up of basalt (an igneous rock), which is known to be poor in radioactive
elements. Therefore, will have a much lower percentage of radiogenic heat supplying its
overall geothermal heat supply.
If you were to drill down into the crust of the Earth, you would eventually come across
extremely hot rock. In the past, it has been shown that once fluctuations in the Earth’s surface
can be ignored rock gets hotter with increasing depth. There is an average geothermal
gradient to help quantify this, it is approximately 25 degrees Celsius per kilometre (Thought

11
Co., 2019). However, the geothermal gradient may change in places depending on how close
magma is to the lithosphere in a region, or any water that is able to be transported through
permeable rock (heating the rock) (refer to 4.1) (Thought Co., 2019).
Magma comes through the lithosphere in a variety of ways. A common way is in spreading
margins, where the crust parts allowing the magma to rise (divergent plate boundary). The
largest version of this is the mid ocean ridge boundary, the mid-Atlantic ridge (Thought Co.,
2019). It is a renewable source of energy that comes from deep within the Earth, however it is
stored in a variety of resources (Blodgett and Slack, 2009).
One of the most common sources of geothermal heat are hot springs, that are found
throughout the world. A country that is well known to have lots of hot springs is Iceland, due
to the large mantle plume beneath its crust. Iceland also sits on the mid-Atlantic ridge, which
supplies the plume with magma (Blodgett and Slack, 2009). Heat in the form of hot springs
can also reach the surface of the Earth through fracture zones, an example of one is the Warm
Springs in Georgia (Thought Co., 2019).
The Earth’s geothermal energy is assumed to be unlimited due to the Earth’s core being
continuously hot. The heat from the mantle of the Earth most commonly travels due to
conduction and is estimated to have a power of 42 million mega-Watts. This supply will most
likely, not run out until humanity is long gone, billions of years from now (Blodgett and
Slack, 2009).
Reservoirs store this geothermal energy, and to do so they rely on several things: heat,
permeability, and water. The heat is supplied by the Earth’s core and is continually moving
from the core up through the mantle. The heat may escape the mantle in the form of magma,
then becoming lava as it emerges through the Earth’s lithosphere. However, most of the heat
in the mantle heats nearby water and rock that is close to the mantle/lithosphere boundary. If
water is heated by the mantle, steam can form which then gets trapped within
permeable/porous rock that has a layer of impermeable rock above it. This traps the steam
and creates a reservoir (Blodgett and Slack, 2009). This steam and/or hot water can then be
collected and used for heating, and electricity generation (see chapter 4).

2.3 Geothermal Gradients

Geothermal gradients can be used to determine how hot the rock in the lithosphere is with
increasing depth, by creating a graph correlating depth and temperature of the rock in a
certain location. The average geothermal gradient of the world being around 25 degrees
Celsius per km.
These geothermal gradients can then be used to work out the ideal location to look for
geothermal energy within the crust (refer to 2.2). To be able to do this the ideal geothermal
gradient for rocks hot enough to produce geothermal energy must be known. This value
varies between 25-30 degrees Celsius per km, however, the higher the geothermal gradient
the better and more likely there is to be good geothermal energy resources.

12
To illustrate how useful geothermal gradients are at quantifying an areas potential as a
geothermal reservoir, geothermal gradients for various locations throughout the world can be
created and compared.
Iceland is also one of the world’s most favourable locations for geothermal energy
production, due to its geology. As discussed previously, Iceland is sitting on the mid-Atlantic
ridge and has its own ‘hotspot’ (with similarity to Hawaii) which gives it such high
geothermal energy prospects (Agustsson and Flovenz, 2004). Iceland has near-surface
geothermal (temperature) gradients ranging from 0-500 degrees Celsius per km, varying with
location. These gradients’ values depend on four conditions: regional heat flow through the
lithosphere (crust), hydrothermal activity, the permeability of the rock, and any residual heat
in extinct volcanic centres. It should be noted that Iceland is made predominantly of basaltic
rock, which means that radiogenic heat production is negligible. However, the thermal
conductivity of the rock (which is important when discussing how easily the heat can move
within the rocks) is predominantly influenced by the porosity of the rock, in the sense that as
porosity decreases the thermal conductivity increases. As discussed in 1.1, Iceland is in a
volcanic rift zone, the mid-Atlantic ridge, which allows fresh basaltic lava to seep up to the
surface. This lava is highly porous, fractured, and the heat is mainly transported through
convection. Therefore, the geothermal gradients tend to be quite low near the surface
meaning the deeper into the lithosphere you go the higher the geothermal gradient will be
(Flovenz and Saemundsson, 1993).
There are three types of rock: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. Sedimentary rocks are
formed from sediment in the form of sand, pebbles, silt and other material in layers over time
before hardening into a rock; they tend to be quite soft and break easily. Igneous rocks form
from the solidification of lava, they tend to be harder wearing against weathering conditions
and are good conductors of heat. The basalt that makes up most of Iceland is a type of fine
crystalline alkaline (not acidic) igneous rock. Metamorphic rock is formed from one of the
other two types of rocks being under extreme pressure and/or heat (metamorphosis), which
causes the minerals (that make up the rock) to change (Annenberg Learner, 2017).
Moving back to Iceland’s geothermal gradients now the basis of the main rock that makes up
Iceland has been clarified. Geothermal reservoirs are quite common in Iceland, due to
convective flow of heat from lava through fracture zones from the main mid-Atlantic rift
zone (Flovenz and Saemundsson, 1993). It should also be noted that in the top 1.5km of
Iceland’s crust, the temperature gradients range from 40-150 degrees Celsius (Agustsson and
Flovenz, 2004). Above these geothermal reservoirs you get the highest values of the
temperature gradients, and the gradient tends to decrease the further away from the spreading
ridge you drill. However, sometimes the temperature gradient may be lower than expected
due to the presence of water cooling a convective heating system down, so when
calculating/observing geothermal gradients for various parts of Iceland this should be
considered (Flovenz and Saemundsson, 1993).

13
 Figure 5 are typical examples of geothermal
gradients showing how they can be altered
due to certain natural occurring factors of
cooling. The graph in figure 6 is like figure 5;
it shows the geothermal gradients of various
boreholes taken from Iceland’s crust.
Therefore, showing the varying (yet steep)
geothermal gradients throughout Iceland.

Figure 5: Shows a standard geothermal

gradient from a borehole sample collected,
in comparison to two geothermal fields in
Iceland. The two fields Leira and
Seltjarnes have very high geothermal
(temperature) gradients, whereas the
borehole Akranes has a much lower
geothermal gradient due to water cooling
the convective system. (Flovenz and
Saemundsson, p.127, 1993).

Comparing figures 5 and 6, there are

similarities in the steepness of the geothermal
gradients, therefore showing how high the
geothermal gradients in Iceland tend to be.
This helps us to understand why Iceland has
such high geothermal energy production.
Figure 6: shows geothermal
Britain however, has a much lower percentage of
gradients of boreholes taken in
geothermal energy production, and this can be
Iceland that ae at depths greater
understood in terms of the lower geothermal gradient
than 500m (Agustsson and
where the average geothermal gradient for Britain is
Flovenz, p.4, 2004).
approximately 26 degrees Celsius per km, however
this can increase to 35 degrees Celsius per km
regionally. For reference, figure 7 shows geothermal gradients for various locations
throughout Scotland.

14

Figure 7: Is temperature versus depth data for
onshore boreholes in Scotland. The dotted white
lines define the limits for which most the is
scattered (Gillespie, Crane and Barron, H.F.,
p.36, 2013)
Figure 7 shows a geothermal
gradient of 30.5 degrees
Celsius per km, which is lower
than the geothermal gradients
from figures 5 and 6. However,
it is still on the higher end of
average geothermal gradients
for Britain, and is a high
enough geothermal gradient to
act as a source of geothermal
energy (Gillespie, Crane and
Barron, H.F., 2013). This refers
to the point, that even though
Britain does not have volcanic
activity it still has good sources
of geothermal energy.

As discussed in 2.2, heat flow can also be due to radioactive decay which tends to be
Britain’s main source of heat flow. The highest heat flow locations are radiogenic granites
(another type of igneous rock, which is coarser grained and acidic in comparison to the basalt
discussed in 2.2). These radiogenic granites are predominant in the Southwest of England;
there is also buried granites in Northern England high in heat flow as well. There is also a
spike in heat flow in some parts of Scotland as well, such as the Cairngorms (shown in figure
15, 5.2) (Busby, 2010).
The temperatures that are achieved in Iceland that are greater than 150 degrees Celsius for
electricity production, require much deeper depths in Britain. However, 995m boreholes have
temperature changes of 46 degrees Celsius. The rock is highly permeable and ideal for heat
pump systems (see section 4.1) (Busby, 2010).
Overall, Iceland does have far higher geothermal gradients than Britain, however, that does
not mean there is no hope for an increase in geothermal energy production within Britain
(further discussion in chapter 5).
As previously discussed, geothermal energy is used for a wide range of applications and its
production is of growing importance. There is lots of potential in geothermal energy, as
discussed in 2.1, it is a form of renewable energy. However, before the full benefits of
geothermal energy can be discussed, the basics of what it can be used for must be understood.
The four main uses of geothermal energy are: electricity production, commercial, industrial
and residential heating purposes. As stated, it is clear the main usage of geothermal energy is
for heat production (Blodgett and Slack, 2009). To understand why this is, it is best to delve
into how efficient it is to use geothermal energy as a heat source or to generate electricity.
The following chapter helps establish the equations used to work this out.

15
 Chapter 3
Thermodynamics and its Applications

3.1 Brief History of Thermodynamics

Thermodynamics is a very large branch of physics. It goes back to ancient times. The
thermometer was the first step in this 280-220BC Philo of Byzantium wrote about a heat-
sensing device. Then in 10-70AD, Hero of Alexandria talked about water levels changing
within a sink due to temperature changes. It was predominantly water levels that were used to
show the change in temperature, until Galileo (1564-1642), who invented the first
thermometer, that he used to work out different temperatures of air. Boyle then realised that
scales were needed on thermometers (as they didn’t have scales up until this point) (Bozsaky,
2010).
Christian Huygens came up with the first temperature scale, based on the freezing and
heating points of water. It was Daniel Gabriel Fahrenheit who developed the first proper scale
thermometer. It was only later that Andres Celsius made a thermometer with Huygens idea in
terms of the temperature scale (Bozsaky, 2010).
Most people believed heat was some sort of substance, until Boyle and Hooke argued that
heat was due to the movement of molecules.
Boerhaave examined the phenomena of thermal expansion. In the middle 18th century, Joseph
Black (a Scottish scientist) showed the difference between temperature and the amount of
heat. He also came up with the concept for specific heat, i.e. the measure of heat required to
increase the temperature of a unit quantity of a substance by one unit (Bozsaky, 2010).
Caloric theory of heat was developed by Carnot in 1824. It discussed the relationship
between heat and energy, and a way of expressing reversible and irreversible transformations.
It also provided a natural quantity for heat as being distinct from a quantity of thermal
energy. The caloric theory is consistent with Carnot’s principle, and is the natural measure of
a quantity of heat with respect to Carnot’s equation. In 1865, Clausius named this concept
“entropy” (Callendar, 1910).
Once these basics had been established, and a caloric theory had been used even more than
before, the basics of gas laws were founded. Using the caloric theory, it was discovered that
at a constant pressure the volume of gas increases and decreases by the same amount as
temperature. This then went on to be a published law in terms of how “pressure of a gas of
fixed volume is directly proportional to its temperature” (Bozsaky, p.7, 2010). This then led
onto the formulation of the ideal gas equation E.10, considering the understanding of absolute
zero, or 0K.
After the basis of gas laws had been established the next step involved the theory of heat
transfer. The three main methods for heat transfer were distinguished: thermal conduction,
thermal convection, and thermal radiation. All of which are important to understand heat

16
transfer and how to apply it to processes throughout the Earth. However, it was not until 1807
that the law of heat conduction was formulated.
𝛥𝑇
𝑞 = 𝜆( ) (E.4)
𝛥𝑥
Where q is the heat flux, λ is the heat transfer coefficient, ΔT is the change in temperature
between two points, and Δx is the difference between two points (Bozsaky, p.7, 2010).
The next stage before coming up with the laws of thermodynamics, kinetic theory was
established and then later replaced the caloric theory. Firstly, Boyle’s law was used to show
that as temperature changes the pressure will change proportionally to the square of the
velocities of the particles. More work was published going against caloric theory and for
kinetic theory, suggesting that heat occurs due to the rubbing together of particles. This was
then put into words in terms of the conservation of energy. This frictional heat generation was
then linked to work (more specifically how frictional heat can be changed into mechanical
work), and how work can be converted into heat.
An important experiment was conducted to decide whether the kinetic theory was better than
caloric theory. This experiment involved the Carnot cycle (A.1). The Caloric version of the
Carnot Cycle viewed heat as a substance, which can be used to gain a result for efficiency.
However, it was not right as there is not the same amount of heat in the warm region (of a
heat engine) as there is in the cold region due to heat changing into mechanical work (as
previously discovered due to friction). It was later that there were more indications of the
principle conservation of energy and the validity of kinetic theory (Bozsaky, 2010).
Further back, basic theorems of thermodynamics had been discussed. These specify that the
maximum possible efficiency of a heat engine in terms of ratio of temperatures of the source,
and the sink of the heat that powers it. It has applications to mantle convection, to the fact
that convective efficiency is represented not by actual temperature ratio but the adiabatic ratio
for the conditions of the source and sink (Stacey and Hodgkinson, 2018)
All these discoveries and research then led into the creation of the laws of thermodynamics
and how it all relates to the principle of conservation of energy.

3.2 The Laws of Thermodynamics

The first and second laws of thermodynamics are the most important laws for the basics of
thermodynamics (Juku, 2007). Thinking of something that is within an area, that can be
‘open’ or ‘closed’ in its state, depending on its ability to exchange matter around itself or not.
If this is on its own, (‘isolated’) then it will not be able to exchange ‘energy’ with the area
around it. ‘Energy’ is one of the fundamental quantities able to describe such a thing.
However, over the course of time many scientists have managed to come up with a
phenomenon on a macroscopic scale involving heat and work done on a closed but not
isolated system that led to the conceptualisation of energy and internal energy, U (sometimes
referred to as E) (Juku, 2007).

17
However, to be able to understand these relationships the basics of the various variables used
throughout thermodynamic equations must be understood. These fundamental variables are
pressure (p), temperature (T), internal energy (U) as mentioned before, and entropy (S).
However, there are other variables which are derived that are useful to know as well:
enthalpy (H), Helmholtz free energy (A), and Gibbs free energy (G). These final three
variables can be defined in terms of three common equations within thermodynamics (Bevan
Ott and Boerio-Goates, p.3, 2000).

𝐻 = 𝑈 + 𝑝𝑉 (E.5)

𝐴 = 𝑈 − 𝑇𝑆 (E.6)

𝐺 = 𝑈 + 𝑝𝑉 − 𝑇𝑆 (E.7)

These equations are important for understanding how various types of thermodynamic
equations can work together.
The laws of thermodynamics, as mentioned briefly, are the most important theories to try and
grasp the basis of thermodynamics in relation to everyday life.
Firstly, the first law of thermodynamics should be addressed. The following equation is from
Juku, p.1 (2007).
dU =Q−W (E.8)
This is the first law of thermodynamics. This shows that the combination of the heat and
work done on the system, is what determines the change in energy. The heat added being Q,
and the work done being W.
The 1st law is simply the principle of the conservation of energy. If this is to be applied to a
control volume, it would provide information that, the rate of accumulation of the total
energy within the control volume is the same as the collective rate of the total energy addition
to the control volume.
The 2nd law of thermodynamics is essentially the concept of entropy. Entropy is a
thermodynamic variable called S. The second law posits that the change in entropy, ΔS, is
equal to the heat transfer, ΔQ, divided by the temperature, T (Hall, 2015).
𝛥𝑄 (E.9)
𝛥𝑆 =
𝑇
The combined entropy of a system and the environment remains constant, if the system is
reversible.
“Classical thermodynamics consider only the processes that are performed by quasi-
equilibrium state path of the system” (Petrescu et al., p.2, 2016). This means that the system
can follow a main path between 2 thermodynamic states, and the processes would be
reversible.

18
The 3rd law of thermodynamics states that the entropy of a system approaches a constant at
absolute zero, this constant tending to be zero. For instance, when at absolute zero any
thermal energy must be at its minimum (Zohuri, 2018).
The 1st law is the concept of energy (U), the 2nd law is the concept of entropy (S), the 3rd law
“at zero kelvin temperature, entropy tends to zero” (Petrescu et al., p.2, 2016)
Equations of state (EOS), are used to relate pressure, volume and temperature. In Nagayama
and Kubota (2014), it discusses how analysis had been done on EOS to do with volume,
pressure and enthalpy. A certain enthalpy must be used in the equation of state for solid
materials.

3.3 Equations related to Geothermal Energy Extraction

To narrow thermodynamics to the extraction of geothermal energy, the most useful thing to
do is to try and establish efficiency equations. However, there are some equations that are
good to know and consider before that. For example, the ideal gas equation,
𝑃𝑉 = 𝑛𝑅𝑇 (E.10)

(Stacey and Hodgkinson, p.44, 2018).

Boltzmann’s constant, k.
𝑅
𝑘=𝑁 (E.11)
𝐴

Where R is the ideal gas constant and NA is the Avogadro number, another constant.
Boltzmann theory talks about the probability of occupation of an atomic state 2 relative to
state 1,
𝑝(2) ∆𝐸
= exp (− 𝑘𝑡 ) (E.12)
𝑝(1)

Planck’s theory is also very important, especially when discussing potential blackbody
radiation, which can be relevant when discussing the radioactive decay of certain radioactive
elements.

∆𝐸 = ℎ𝑣 (E.13)

Where v is frequency (Stacey and Hodgkinson, p.44, 2018).

The conversion of heat to work is one of the most useful equations in thermodynamics,
𝑇
ƞ = 1 − 𝑇𝑐 (E.14)
ℎ

Where ƞ is efficiency, Tc is the lowest temperature and Th is the highest temperature. The
method for deriving this equation is shown in the appendix (A.1). This equation is part of the
Carnot cycle, and the efficiency of this cycle (Oberlin.edu., 2019). This equation can also be
rearranged depending on the situation, for example a heat pump system. This is limited by the
laws of thermodynamics. There will always be heat lost to the surroundings of the system, for
instance a certain amount of input heat can be lost to the surrounding environment. This input

19
heat, which can also be converted into work, is called exergy, this is convertible. Any non-
convertible portion is called anergy. The thermodynamic definition for exergy for a flow
stream (Valdimarsson, p.2, 2011),

𝑥 = ℎ − ℎ𝑜 − 𝑇𝑜 (𝑠 − 𝑠𝑜 ) (E.15)

The zero index in E.15, refers to the environmental conditions for the subject conversion.
The power plant efficiency ratio is the ratio of power produced and any heat flow to the
power plant. The Carnot cycle can be misleading when working with power plants, as the
thermal reservoir is indefinitely large and so no cooling will occur within the reservoir when
any heat is removed. Due to this, the thermal efficiency of a power plant tends to be far more
reliable (Valdimarsson, p.3, 2011),
𝑊̇
ƞ𝑡ℎ = 𝑄 ̇ (E.16)
𝑖𝑛

Equation 16, can also be written as follows (Moon and Zarrouk, p.2, 2012),
𝑊𝑎𝑝𝑐
𝑛𝑎𝑝𝑐 = 1 − (E.17)
𝑊𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠

Wgross being the electrical output by the power plant, Wapc being the combined input power
and apc standing for auxiliary power control. This equation is a modified E.14, for electricity
generating geothermal power plants, it is used to calculate the overall efficiency of the power
plant (napc). Equation 17 is also mentioned in 4.3, including its relevance in the overall
infrastructure of a heat to electricity power plant and why efficiency tends to be much lower.
All these equations are important to understand the thermodynamics involved throughout the
various aspects of geothermal energy, and, as will be discussed in chapter 4 the extraction
methods. Equation 14 being one of the most important relationships in reference to the
following chapter.
Equation 14 is the most important equation for understanding how viable it is to extract
geothermal energy and to use it for heat and electricity. The conservation of energy equation
proves that using a heat pump has an extremely high efficiency (refer to 4.1). However, the
equation also proves that converting geothermal heat into electricity has an extremely low
efficiency as given the law of thermodynamics and basis of energy convertion, it will always
lead to significant losses.

20
 Chapter 4
Extracting Geothermal Energy

4.1 How to Extract Geothermal Energy

As mentioned in previous chapters geothermal energy is within the Earth’s crust and requires
various methods to utilise its heat and/or convert it into electricity. Therefore, to tap into the
Earth’s crust to access this geothermal energy, it needs to be extracted.
If a company decides it wants to extract geothermal energy, for any reason, it should be noted
that the best areas to extract this energy needs to be full of fractures and show a high
temperature gradient. When drilling into the crust extremely hot steam can be stored within
fracture rich rock, known as geothermal reservoirs. Impermeable rock and cooled down
(crystallised) minerals seal in this high pressurised steam, which are known as dry steam
zones (Thought Co., 2019).
There are many different types of steam fields, most of which tend to contain moisture due to
the production of hot water along with steam. These are far less efficient than dry steam
fields, however, they are still used to a large degree (Thought Co., 2019).
One of the most common ways to utilise geothermal energy is using a heat pump. These use
the mostly constant temperature of the Earth’s crust and tend to go down 3 to 92 metres. They
can be used anywhere (depending on available hot rock) as they do not have the restrictions
that more conventional reservoirs do, that require fractured rock and water. These pumps
move water throughout the system, this water can be heated by the Earth’s crust to supply
heat to an area. They can also cool an area whilst directing heated water to a tank, providing
free heated water for the winter (Blodgett and Slack, 2009).
Heat exchanger refrigerant/air
(Evaporator)

Cool supply air to Warm return air from

conditioned space conditioned space

Expansion valve
Refrigerant
reversing valve
Domestic hot
water exchanger
(desuperheater)

Heat exchanger refrigerant/water

(Condenser)

In

Out

Domestic water
Refrigerant To/from ground. Heat exchanger
compresso (Geothermal)
Figure 8: Heat pump, water rto air in the cooling cycle (Curtis et al, p.2, 2005).

21
Heat pumps are a very useful method for heating a home. To understand how efficient they
are, it is easier to discuss the series of stages within a standard heat pump (as shown in
figures 8 and 9).
Heat pumps use the relatively constant temperature of the crust to heat, cool, and provide hot
water throughout domestic, industrial, and commercial buildings. They require little
electricity to run, which powers the compressor. This piece of machinery causes heat to flow
from cool to high temperature areas, which is basically how a refrigerator works. The
machine shows the work done, and any temperature differences throughout the system. The
greater the temperature difference, the greater the energy output from the heat pump (Curtis
et al, 2005).
Figure 8 shows the cooling cycle of a heat pump system, it should be noted that this is a water
to air geothermal heat pump system. There are two different variations for this type of heat
pump: ground-coupled (closed-loop) and ground water (open loop) systems. The type of
system chosen depends on the conditions of the ground (soil or rock) within an area, and
whether a well for water is needed to be drilled or not (based on availability of water nearby)
(Curtis et al, 2005).
Within a closed-loop system, a closed loop of pipe is placed within the ground either
vertically or horizontally. Then water anti-freeze solution is put through the pipe, which then
either collects any heat in the winter from the ground or rejects the heat in the summer back
into the ground. In comparison, the open loop system requires putting an open loop pipe
within a water source (either underground or a lake for example), which is then put directly
into the heat exchanger and then put back into a stream or other location (Curtis et al, 2005).
Referring to figures 8 and 9, there is a desuperheater (or domestic hot water exchanger)
within this heat pump system. This is to allow hot water to be stored over the summer, and
therefore, be reused in winter, which is done by redirecting the heated water to a water tank.
This is a common application of water to air heat pumps, however, water to water heat pumps
can also be used like this. These types of heat pumps work slightly differently, they pump hot
water to storage when the heating mode is switched to domestic hot water mode. This is
while the output temperature is set to the maximum (Curtis et al, 2005).

22
 Heat exchanger refrigerant/air
(condenser)

Warm supply air to Cool return air from

conditioned space conditioned space

Refrigerant Expansion valve

reversing valve
Domestic hot water
exchanger
(desuperheater)

Heat exchanger
refrigerant/water
(Evaporator)

In

Out

Domestic water Refrigerant To/from ground heat

compressor exchanger (geothermal)

Figure 9: Heat pump, water to air in the heating cycle (Curtis et al, p.2, 2005)
Both heat pumps are used throughout the world, North America for example tends to use
water to air pumps. Meanwhile, Northern Europe tends to use the water to water pumps
(Curtis et al, 2005).
Another method for extracting heat from geothermal reservoirs is hydraulic fracturing
(fracking) (Potter, Robinson and Smith, 1974).
Geothermal power plants are becoming an increasing part of the power industry. These begin
by drilling down to hot dry rock (Thought Co., 2019), making sure to interconnect several of
the drilled holes together, and fracturing the rock. This allows water to be pumped down,
creating steam and/or hot water, which can enter through one of the holes that were created
and out through the other. This creates a natural convective circulation which allows for
continuous heat removal (Potter, Robinson and Smith, 1974). This hot water under high
pressures can be quickly superheated (flashed) to produce steam, which is then used to
produce electricity (refer to 4.2) (Thought Co., 2019).
This method for extracting heat from geothermal reservoirs is hydraulic fracturing.
There is another form of fracturing that is used to extract geothermal energy from a formally
nongeothermal reservoir, this method is known as explosive fracturing (fracking). These can
be used to tap into geothermal energy in the form of steam, which is known to be far rarer
than that of ‘hot water’ reservoirs. However, these kinds of reservoirs are much better when
the energy is being used to produce electricity.
Explosions have been used throughout history to extract potential energy sources such as oil,
therefore, explosives can also be used to extract (renewable) geothermal energy. However,
due to the extremely high temperatures that come from geothermal reservoirs, this tends to
result in the lack of exploration using such methods. That was until far safer explosives that

23
do not explode from high temperatures were developed (Sherwood, 1971). These explosives
can then be used to fracture impermeable rock to increase the water production within the
reservoir. In West Virginia this method was used to increase production within a gas well,
which is essentially the same method but a different energy source. (Howell and Clare, 1970).
There are also geothermal steam fields (that do not require fracking) that are used to produce
cheap electricity, which in turn makes it far more appealing (Sherwood, 1971).
Although, the most common method for extracting geothermal energy is using hot water
resources, most of the Earth’s geothermal resources is in the form of extremely hot but very
dry rock; known as a hot dry rock resource. Given the amount of hot dry rock available, this
resource can generate approximately 300 times more energy than the fossil fuel available
within the same depth range (10 billion quads. A quad being the equivalent amount of energy
to 180 million barrels of oil).
However, since the method for extracting hot dry rock geothermal resources tends to involve
drilling to great depths, it is important to know how hot the rock is (and therefore how much
potential) it has at being a geothermal resource. To achieve these interpretations, a
geothermal gradient can be produced to show the thermal maturity of the rocks and show the
rate at which the rocks get hotter with increasing depth (refer to 1.2 and 1.3) (Duchane and
Brown, 2002). The geothermal gradient changes in different locations depends on local
activity. For example, the geothermal gradient will increase due to tectonic activity. As
geothermal gradients can be used to know where the best dry hot rock sources are, there are
desired temperature values which can be represented by the geothermal gradient. These
temperatures should be approximately 100 degrees Celsius and above (Duchane and Brown,
2002).
Being able to tap into the geothermal resources from a dry hot source has its challenges,
therefore, a common method used (as shown in figure 10) involves drilling down to the rock,
and using water under high pressures to fracture the rock (hydraulic fracturing as discussed
earlier in 4.1). This fracture tends to be vertical, and still a decent distance from an initial well
borehole. This means that cold water can be pumped down into one borehole, and then
brought back up through the other borehole after being superheated by the rock.
These methods have been improved with time, figure 10, shows hydraulic fracturing for dry
hot rock in a surface power plant. The most important part of this is the injection pump, as it
is responsible for the power to pump with pressurized water that goes down into the rock,
which then forces it back up as well. There are also various valves throughout the system to
prevent a pressure build up, in the form of bypass flow. Of course, there is also natural
circulation at work here, due to the nature of how the boreholes were drilled in the first place.
Surface piping is then used to move the heated water to a heat exchanger so that the water is
cooled to ambient temperature. Water from the heat exchanger then goes to the makeup-water
pump, to be potentially reinjected into the circulating system if pressure is lost (as shown in
figure 10) (Duchane and Brown, 2002).

24
Figure 10: layout of a closed loop part of a hot dry rock surface plant (Duchane and Brown,
p.16, 2002)
Hydraulic fracturing tends to be used more widely, however, explosive fracturing is
increasing in usage. Explosive fracturing normally takes place when there is a steam field
reservoir, explosives are used to increase steam production by creating more fractures within
the rock. This is known as explosive stimulation (Sherwood, 1971).
Although explosive fracturing is an alternative way of fracking for geothermal energy,
hydraulic fracturing (although has issues of its own) tends to be safer than explosive
fracturing, as discussed in 5.2. If the desired well is a deep geothermal well it needs to be
drilled with a specific drill type (or production well) for safety reasons. For this to be done
safely, the drill requires several layers of casing, as shown in figure 11 (Hole, 2008). The
overall purpose of the various layers of casing is to protect the overall formation of the well,
prevent blocking, contains well fluids and pressure, prevent any leakage of fluids from and
into the well, and finally to protect of the well against erosion/corrosion (Hole, 2008).

25
This becomes more important and
more difficult the deeper the well is
drilled, due to a large increase in
pressure and temperature throughout
the whole system.
It should as well be noted that
geothermal heat that is pumped up
from the ground in geothermal energy
plants, tend to be used for the
generation of electricity (refer to 4.2).

Figure 11: Casing strings and liner for a typical

geothermal well (Hole, p.1, 2008).

4.2 Converting Geothermal Heat into Electricity

Geothermal energy can be relatively easily extracted, and therefore, used for heat. However,
converting this geothermal heat into electricity is another matter and has been proven to be
far less efficient than simply using geothermal heat with heat pumps.
There are three methods that can be done in geothermal power plants to convert the
geothermal heat into electricity, one of which is far more efficient than the other two. These
methods are: dry steam, flash steam and binary cycle (Energy Informative, 2010).
Although there are different methods for generating electricity, they all have one similarity.
They all use steam turbines to generate the electricity.
Firstly, dry steam power plants are named so because the water that has been heated by the
geothermal heat to turn the turbine has to be in its gaseous form. The geothermal steam that is
used in these power plants is at about 150 degrees Celsius, this is extracted from the
reservoirs by production wells (refer to 4.1). This is then sent directly to the turbine as shown
in figure 12, however, these dry steam plants for geothermal energy are rare and have low
efficiency.

26
The most efficient of these power plants are flash
steam electricity generators. These use water at
temperatures greater than 182 degrees Celsius, and
‘flash steam’ stands for a process where extremely
high-pressure water is flashed (or vaporised) into
steam when inside a flash tank by lowering the
pressure. This steam, like in dry steam, is used to
turn the turbines (shown in figure 13). Flash steam is
the most common type of power plant, and the most
efficient, with efficiencies ranging from 2.5-15%
(Haraldsson, 2016).

Figure 12: Dry steam power plant

(Energy Informative, 2010)

The third type of power plant is called the binary

cycle. This only requires temperatures of 57
degrees Celsius, due to a working fluid that has a
much lower boiling point than water,
approximately 85 degrees Celsius (Yan, 2011).
This allows geothermal heat from the reservoir to
flash the working fluid into a gaseous form, to
then turn the turbine. However, it should be noted
that the hot water coming up through the
Figure 13: Flash steam power plant
production wells never encounter this working
(Energy Informative, 2010)
fluid.
This means that once the working fluid has been
heated through a heat exchanger by the water, the
water can be pumped back down into the reservoir
and heated and used repeatedly (shown in figure 14).
Power plants of this type tend to have a low
efficiency, of 10-13% (Energy Informative, 2010).
However, it is common for binary power plants to
have efficiencies lower than 10% (Haraldsson,
2016).
Together these types of power plant have low
efficiencies varying between 10% and 23%.
However, it is worth noting that their low efficiency
is offset by their low cost, since no fuel is required Figure 14: Binary cycle power
towards functioning. plant (Energy Informative, 2010)

27
Chapter 3 also discusses briefly about the low efficiency in converting geothermal heat to
electricity. This will be discussed more in terms of the conservation of energy equation (E.14)
in 4.3.

4.3 Thermodynamic Connections

As mentioned briefly in chapter 4.1, heat pumps are an extremely efficient method for
extracting renewable heat in the form of hot water to heat various residential and other
buildings. This efficiency can be proved by using the conservation of energy equation for a
heat pump (E.18) (Nuclear Power, 2020) which is defined by the Carnot cycle (A.1) and the
efficiency equation for a heat engine (E.14). The heat pump works like a refrigerator (4.1),
therefore, it has a greater output energy than input. When this is considered and plugged into
equation E.14 (Oberlin.edu., p.5, 2019), this gives efficiencies of up to 300%, as using the
Carnot cycle the heat pump takes in 1kW of energy (for example) and gets 3kW out
(Leonardo ENERGY, 2015). This is extremely efficient and is one of the benefits of using
heat pumps and therefore, geothermal energy as a source of heat. However, it is
thermodynamically impossible to have any system with an efficiency greater than 100%.
Therefore, when speaking of the efficiency of the heat pump it is known as the Coefficient of
Performance (CoP) instead (Leonardo ENERGY, 2015).
𝑄ℎ 𝑄ℎ 1 1 (E.18)
ƞ= = = = 1
𝑊 𝑄ℎ − 𝑄𝑐 1 − 𝑄𝑐⁄ 𝑇
𝑄 1 − 𝑐⁄𝑇
ℎ ℎ

Although the standard model of a heat pump has a very high CoP, there are differing
variations of CoP depending on the model itself. For instance, there is a type of heat pump
which uses Seasonal Coefficient of Performance (SCoP) which considers the varying air
temperatures throughout the year, if using an air heat pump as opposed to a geothermal heat
pump (Leonardo ENERGY, 2015). In terms of geothermal heat pumps, the efficiency tends
to be 400% in comparison to approximately 78-90% for fossil fuel furnaces (Energy
Environmental, 2019).
However, in reference to the source of geothermal energy itself (2.1) sometimes a company
may have to drill relatively deep to obtain the optimum geothermal reservoir. This means that
deep earth geophysics may need to be considered, which relies on discussing thermal
expansion within high temperature geothermal wells, specifically the casings within the wells
(4.1). It was mentioned briefly that the casing is extremely important for the infrastructure of
the drill and therefore, the safety of the action of drilling the well. Thermal expansion is an
inevitable occurrence when dealing with extremely high temperatures, therefore, the casings
of the drill need to be able to withstand any potential thermal expansion. The casings tend to
be made of steel which are constrained by concrete (Hole, 2008).
As mentioned in 4.2, although there are several methods for generating electricity from
geothermal heat, they do tend to have extremely low efficiencies. For instance, not all the
heat from the heated water will be changed into steam to turn the turbine. Also, heat will be
lost when the hot water is flashed into steam (refer to 4.2) therefore, less steam will be
produced to turn the turbine and a much lower percentage of electricity will be produced.

28
This can be proven by taking values from examples of these power plants and plug them into
the conservation of energy equation (E.14), although the conservation of energy equation
(E.16) may not be the exact same one used for these types of power plants. This is due to
certain factors needing to be considered, for instance, the overall input and output power is a
much better tool than the temperature.
E.14, is closer in similarities to the conservation of energy equation for a heat engine.
𝑇𝑐
ƞ=1− (E.14)
𝑇ℎ
The following equation is an altered E.14 (Moon and Zarrouk, p.2, 2012), it considers the
gross electric power (Wgross) and the gross auxiliary power (Wapc). Wgross essentially is the
electric power produced by the power plant, whereas Wapc is the combined power
consumption of the power plant (from pumps, cooling equipment, and gas extractors). The
Wapc, is divided by the Wgross to get an accurate representation of the efficiency (napc) of a
geothermal electricity production plant.
𝑊𝑎𝑝𝑐
𝑛𝑎𝑝𝑐 = 1 − (E.17)
𝑊𝑔𝑟𝑜𝑠𝑠

This equation is also explained in 3.3. This equation can be used to calculate an approximate
efficiency for these types of power plants. However, there will be heat loss within the pipes
used for extracting the heated water and not all the energy from the water will become steam
to generate electricity. Therefore, the calculation tends to have a need for some uncertainty.
However, the energy lost from the pipe can sometimes be considered negligible (refer to 3.3).
Overall, it is possible to calculate the efficiency of all desired methods for utilising
geothermal energy. Therefore, companies can make the decision on how feasible it is to
proceed with geothermal energy exploration and power plants i.e. extraction.
Now that the various processes involved in using geothermal energy and the equations that
are used to understand these processes to make them safer have been established, the overall
usage of geothermal energy and possible future plans can be elaborated in the following
chapter.

29
 Chapter 5
Britain versus Iceland: a Comparison of Geothermal Energy Use
5.1 Iceland and the UK
Iceland is known for having a lot of volcanic activity and hot springs throughout the island
(as discussed previously). Therefore, the island has a lot of geothermal heat within the crust
that builds the island, this heat is also easily accessible. As a result of this Iceland is powered
by geothermal energy to a large degree, both for heating and electricity. The country is even
considered to be a pioneer in the usage of geothermal energy for using it to heat such large
areas across the country. Geothermal power plants generate 25% of Iceland’s electricity and
geothermal energy accounts for 66% of the island’s primary energy use (Orkustofnun
National Energy Authority, 2014).
Ideally it would be great if other countries could follow suit. However, there is the issue of
countries that do not have geothermal reservoirs as close to the surface as Iceland; they would
have to resort to fracking (and this will be discussed in section 5.2). Britain is trying to
change this, albeit slowly, they are making steps in the right direction. The following diagram
shows the overall heat flow throughout the rocks within Britain.

Figure 15: The heat flow throughout the UK (Busby, p.1, 2010)

Britain unlike Iceland produces most of its heat flow from radioactive decay, as discussed in
chapter 2. Therefore, a common method for extracting the geothermal energy from these hot
rocks (like in Cornwall shown in figure 15) is by fracking (discussed in 4.1). However, there
are several issues and controversies with fracking due to it being considered bad for the
environment and that fracturing the rock can cause tremors (small earthquakes) in nearby

30
residential areas. A current example for this would be in Lancashire, where there has been
fracking for oil; this has caused an uproar in the local community due to a 2.9 magnitude
tremor (BBC News, 2019). Fracking for geothermal energy on the other hand, may not
generate the same kind of backlash due to it being a renewable energy source instead of a
fossil fuel. The potential prospects for geothermal energy production have caused a leap
forward to produce electricity using geothermal energy. In Cornwall’s United Downs
Geothermal Power Project, the deepest well for geothermal energy has been drilled for the
first time in the UK. There have also been 20 more sites within Cornwall that have been
identified for power plants (Vergnault, 2019).
The well that has been drilled in Cornwall is 5.1km deep, and has temperatures reaching 195
degrees Celsius making it also the hottest well ever drilled in Britain. There have been
suggestions from the first water flow tests that it will be the first location to produce
geothermal electricity and a renewable source of heat within the UK. When this geothermal
power plant is fully operational (hopefully by spring 2020) it is predicted to produce 3MW of
electricity which would be capable of powering 3,000 homes. The method used to extract
heat from these two wells is hydraulic fracturing, the natural circulation of water being
pumped down into the one well and back up the other (as discussed in further detail in
chapter 4.1) (Vergnault, 2019).
Britain is far behind Iceland in terms of geothermal energy usage. However, there are hopes
that if this geothermal power plant in Cornwall proves useful that there may be more room
for development in the future.

5.2 The Problems with Fracking

As previously discussed, there have been concerns with fracking causing tremors within
residential areas. This is one of the major environmental concerns about proceeding further
with hydraulic fracking (or other forms) for geothermal energy.
However, sometimes the method of fracking can be worse. For instance, explosive fracturing
(mentioned in 4.1) is more dangerous than hydraulic fracturing. In explosive fracking,
minerals can get dissolved within the hot water or steam which can lead to complications
later (Sherwood, 1971).
Fracking can be a rather disruptive process as well, which can negatively impact nearby
wildlife. For instance, figure 15 shows that one of the higher heat flow areas of Britain is in
Scotland. However, this location is the Cairngorms National Park which is known for its
wildlife and nature walks. Therefore, drilling and fracking for geothermal energy in this
beautiful part of the country would probably never be allowed.
Fracking in Scotland has been banned as of October 2019 and fracking is possibly going to be
put on hold in the rest of the Britain. However, the ban on fracking in Scotland was directed
at “unconventional oil and gas extraction” (Church, 2019) and not geothermal energy.
However, as fracking for geothermal energy is used to generate electricity from a renewable
source of energy, as opposed to drilling for oil and gas, it may have a higher chance of being

31
considered; as geothermal energy is a far better source of energy for the planet than oil and
gas.

5.3 Future prospects

Although there are obstacles in the way to get Britain and other countries on the same route
as Iceland in terms of geothermal energy production, there is some hope for future
developments. Current projects in Cornwall are making progress towards geothermal energy
being used as a form of electricity and heat, which may be a stepping-stone to a more
prosperous future for geothermal energy production.

32
 Chapter 6
Conclusion

Overall, geothermal energy is one of the most useful forms of renewable energy particularly
in the light of the ever-growing concern and need to act against climate change. Switching
from fossil fuels to geothermal energy may be part of the solution to having a good, clean and
natural sources of energy.
Therefore, finding the best ways to get the most out of the geothermal energy within the
Earth’s crust is vital. Heat pumps have proven to be a highly efficient, and well executed
method for heating buildings of all types and even storing hot water for the winter. However,
methods for using geothermal energy to generate electricity tend to be far less efficient,
which can be discovered using the conservation of energy equation, derived from the Carnot
cycle of Thermodynamics. Despite the higher efficiency of flash steam wells compared to
other geothermal powerplants, their efficiency remains in general relatively low. That lack of
efficiency however comes at no cost. Unfortunately, cheap energy does not come without its
issues.
Fracking is one the most controversial topics regarding energy. It has been done many times
in the oil and gas industry and has been used for a long time for geothermal energy as well.
However, fracking has proven to cause problems such as earthquakes in nearby residential
areas, therefore, convincing governments to pass any legislation allowing geothermal energy
companies to drill may prove difficult.
Although Geothermal energy is renewable and can generate enough electricity to power
thousands of homes, one of the most important tasks in terms of the energy world should be
to stop the climate crisis at hand, Geothermal energy could and should be a big part of it.

33
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38
 Appendix
A.1 The Carnot Cycle
Derivation of equation E. The Carnot cycle thermal efficiency equation. If you were to start
with a p-Vgraph, depicting the act of an ideal gas expanding and contracting within an area.
An example of this graph is shown below,

Figure 16: p-V graph of an ideal gas depicting the Carnot cycle (Oberlin.edu., p.1, 2019)
There are two temperatures depicted above, Tc the lowest temperature (coldest) and TH the
highest temperature (hottest). If you were to measure these temperatures regarding the ideal
gas equation as shown E. You would get,
𝑝𝑉 (E.10)
𝑇=
𝑁𝑅
There are four stages at which an ideal gas goes through within the Carnot cycle
(Oberlin.edu., p.1, 2019).

 The isothermal expansion of an ideal gas with a high temperature, which means that
work is being done |W1|. However, in order to stop temperature from decreasing the
gas must be able to absorb heat |Q1|.

 Then there is adiabatic expansion, which requires work |W2| to be done. This stage of
expansion causes the temperature to decrease, however, as it is an adiabatic process
no heat is lost or gained by the gas.

 The third stage is when isothermal contraction or compression takes place at low
temperatures. Work |W3| is done again to do this. However, as this process would
normally increase the temperature heat |Q2| needs to be lost by the gas.

 Finally, there is adiabatic contraction/compression. This requires work |W4| to

compress, however, as it is an adiabatic process not heat is lost or gained which
means the temperature of the gas goes up.

39
All these stages describe the actual processes that are taking place; however, we want to have
the “net work done by the gas” (Oberlin.edu., 2019). This requires using an efficiency
equation for the system. The following equation shows this,
𝑛𝑒𝑡 𝑤𝑜𝑟𝑘 𝑑𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑏𝑦 𝑔𝑎𝑠 (|𝑊1 | + |𝑊2 | − |𝑊3 | − |𝑊4 |)
ƞ= =
ℎ𝑒𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑏𝑠𝑜𝑟𝑏𝑒𝑑 𝑏𝑦 𝑔𝑎𝑠 |𝑄1 |

For the relevant amounts, you must know the work done by a quasistatic fluid,

∫ 𝑝(𝑉)𝑑𝑉

Now that the basic equations have been established, we can find the work done for each stage
of the cycle.
For the first stage we can consider temperature to be TH,
𝑁𝑅𝑇𝐻
𝑝(𝑉) =
𝑉
Then if you use the above work done by quasi-static fluid equation you can solve for work,
𝑏
𝑊1 = ∫ 𝑝(𝑉)𝑑𝑉
𝑎

𝑏
𝑁𝑅𝑇𝐻
=∫ 𝑑𝑉
𝑎 𝑉
𝑏
𝑑𝑉
= 𝑁𝑅𝑇𝐻 ∫
𝑎 𝑉

= 𝑁𝑅𝑇𝐻 [𝐼𝑛(𝑉)]𝑏𝑎
𝑉𝑏
= 𝑁𝑅𝑇𝐻 𝐼𝑛 ( )
𝑉𝑎
(Oberlin.edu., 2019). Therefore, Vb > Va. Meaning the work is positive. This shows that the
work done, and heat absorbed cancel each other out,
|𝑄1 | = |𝑊1 |

For the first adiabatic part of the cycle,

ℽ ℽ
𝑝𝑉 ℽ = 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 = 𝑝𝑏 𝑉𝑏 = 𝑝𝑐 𝑉𝑐

Before work can be calculated, a relationship between temperature and volume must be
derived.
ℽ ℽ
𝑝𝑏 𝑉𝑏 = 𝑝𝑐 𝑉𝑐

40
 ℽ−1 ℽ−1
𝑝𝑏 𝑉𝑏 𝑉𝑏 = 𝑝𝑐 𝑉𝑐 𝑉𝑐
ℽ−1 ℽ−1
𝑁𝑅𝑇𝐻 𝑉𝑏 = 𝑁𝑅𝑇𝐶 𝑉𝑐
𝑇𝐻 𝑉𝑐
= ( )ℽ−1
𝑇𝐶 𝑉𝑏
Using the above equation. An equation for work done can be derived (Oberlin.edu., 2019).
𝑐
𝑊2 = ∫ 𝑝(𝑉)𝑑𝑉
𝑏
𝑐
1
= 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 ∫ 𝑑𝑉
𝑏 𝑉𝛾
1
= 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 [ 𝑉 (−𝛾+1) ]𝑐𝑏
−𝛾 + 1
1 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡
= [ − 𝛾−1 ]
−𝛾 + 1 𝑉𝑐𝛾−1 𝑉𝑏
𝛾 𝛾
1 𝑝𝑐 𝑉𝑐 𝑝𝑏 𝑉𝑏
= [ 𝛾−1 − 𝛾−1 ]
−𝛾 + 1 𝑉𝑐 𝑉𝑏
1
= [𝑝 𝑉 − 𝑝𝑏 𝑉𝑏 ]
−𝛾 + 1 𝑐 𝑐
1
= 𝑁𝑅[𝑇𝐶 − 𝑇𝐻 ]
−𝛾 + 1
𝑁𝑅
= (𝑇 − 𝑇𝐶 )
𝛾−1 𝐻
This gives an expected positive value (Oberlin.edu., 2019).
Thirdly, the isothermal compression stage. The equation used is the same as that of the first
stage (with different variables) so referring.
𝑉𝑑
𝑊3 = 𝑁𝑅𝑇𝐶 𝐼𝑛 ( )
𝑉𝑐
Vd<Vc gives a result that is negative because it is compressive, which is to be expected.
Therefore, the work done on the gas is,
𝑉𝑑 𝑉𝑐
|𝑊3 | = −𝑁𝑅𝑇𝐶 𝐼𝑛 ( ) = 𝑁𝑅𝑇𝐶 𝐼𝑛 ( )
𝑉𝑐 𝑉𝑑
So,
|𝑄3 | = |𝑊3 |

41
 Finally, the final stage is the adiabatic compressive stage. The equations from stage 2 apply
here, but with different variables.
𝑇𝐶 𝑉𝑎
= ( )𝛾−1
𝑇𝐻 𝑉𝑑
𝑁𝑅
𝑊4 = (𝑇 − 𝑇𝐻 )
𝛾−1 𝐶
(Oberlin.edu., 2019). With the value being negative,
𝑁𝑅
|𝑊4 | = −𝑊4 = (𝑇 − 𝑇𝐶 )
(𝛾 − 1) 𝐻

(Oberlin.edu., 2019). Combining all these quantities, the efficiency can be worked out.
|𝑊1 | + |𝑊2 | − |𝑊3 | − |𝑊4 | |𝑊2 | − |𝑊3 | − |𝑊4 |
𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 = = 1+
|𝑄1 | |𝑄1 |

However, this shows |W2| = |W4| which tends to be obvious. So, if the values for |W3| and Q1
are used,
𝑉 𝑉
|𝑊3 | 𝑁𝑅𝑇𝐶 𝐼𝑛 (𝑉𝑐 ) 𝑇𝐶 𝐼𝑛 (𝑉𝑐 )
𝑑 𝑑
𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦 = 1 − = 1− = 1−
|𝑄1 | 𝑉𝑏 𝑉𝑏
𝑁𝑅𝑇𝐻 𝐼𝑛 ( 𝑉 ) 𝑇𝐻 𝐼𝑛 ( 𝑉 )
𝑎 𝑎

(Oberlin.edu., 2019). This can be simplified by comparing the final equations in stage 2 and
4.
𝑇𝐻 𝑉𝑐 𝑉𝑑
= ( )𝛾−1 = ( )𝛾−1
𝑇𝐶 𝑉𝑏 𝑉𝑎
𝑉𝑐 𝑉𝑑
=
𝑉𝑏 𝑉𝑎
𝑉𝑐 𝑉𝑏
=
𝑉𝑑 𝑉𝑎
The two natural logs in the expression are equal.
Therefore, the final efficiency equation for the Carnot cycle is,
𝑇𝐶
𝑒𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑐𝑦(𝑛) = 1 − (E.14)
𝑇𝐻
(Oberlin.edu., Pp 5, 2019)

42

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