Geothermal-resource-utilization feasibility study for Tad's Enterprises, Inc. Wabuska Geothermal ethanol plant. Final report

Technical Report · Tue Sep 01 04:00:00 EDT 1981

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5347699· OSTI ID:5347699

Tad's Enterprises, Inc. has a 400,000 gallons per year, 50 gallons per hour, capacity geothermal ethanol plant at Wabuska, Nevada. Corn was the planned feedstock material. The plant is in its first year of operation. The plant has one mash preparation tank, eight hatch fermenters, a conventional four-column distillation system, a single-effect evaporator for thin stillage solubles concentration, and a hot water tube-type rotary dryer for DDGS drying. Geothermal fluid from Wabuska No. 1 well is used for various heating purposes in the plant. Wellhead temperature is about 220/sup 0/F and the capacity of the existing pump is about 450 gallons per minute. Actual usage is not measured. Geothermal fluid effluent is cooled in a spray pond and used as cooling water in the plant. The only nongeothermal heated system is the beer stripping column. A 2 million Btu per hour gas/oil fired boiler is used to generate stripping steam. The plant has about 200 connected horsepower in electric motors. Electric power is purchased from Sierra Pacific Power. Power costs have been on the order of $4000 per month. The installation of a geothermal flash system to generate steam for direct injection into the bottom of the beer stripper appears to be technically feasible with some reservations. The installation of an organic Rankine cycle power generating facility at the Tad's Enterprises facility is technically feasible, but it may not be practical from an economic standpoint using the presently provided design parameters.

• Research Organization: Oregon Inst. of Tech., Klamath Falls (USA). Geo-Heat Center; Ultrasystems Engineers and Constructors, Inc., San Francisco, CA (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: FG06-79ET27256
• OSTI ID: 5347699
• Report Number(s): DOE/ET/27256-17; ON: DE82015111
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

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15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
150800 -- Geothermal Power Plants
151000* -- Geothermal Energy-- Direct Energy Utilization
DESIGN
DISTILLATION EQUIPMENT
ENERGY
EQUIPMENT
ETHANOL PLANTS
EVAPORATION
FEASIBILITY STUDIES
FLASHING
GEOTHERMAL POWER PLANTS
GEOTHERMAL PROCESS HEAT
Geothermal Legacy
HEAT
INDUSTRIAL PLANTS
MODIFICATIONS
OPERATION
PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS
POWER PLANTS
PROCESS HEAT
RANKINE CYCLE
STEAM GENERATION
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
THERMODYNAMIC CYCLES