Evaluation of Hybrid Air-Cooled Flash/Binary Power Cycle

Geothermal binary power plants reject a significant portion of the heat removed from the geothermal fluid. Because of the relatively low temperature of the heat source (geothermal fluid), the performance of these plants is quite sensitive to the sink temperature to which heat is rejected. This is particularly true of air-cooled binary plants. Recent efforts by the geothermal industry have examined the potential to evaporatively cool the air entering the air-cooled condensers during the hotter portions of a summer day. While the work has shown the benefit of this concept, air-cooled binary plants are typically located in regions that lack an adequate supply of clean water for use in this evaporative cooling. In the work presented, this water issue is addressed by pre-flashing the geothermal fluid to produce a clean condensate that can be utilized during the hotter portions of the year to evaporatively cool the air. This study examines both the impact of this pre-flash on the performance of the binary plant, and the increase in power output due to the ability to incorporate an evaporative component to the heat rejection process