Design and operation of a geopressurized-geothermal hybrid cycle power plant

Technical Report · Fri Feb 01 04:00:00 EST 1991

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/5850540· OSTI ID:5850540

Campbell, R G; Hattar, M M

Geopressured-geothermal resources can contribute significantly to the national electricity supply once technical and economic obstacles are overcome. Power plant performance under the harsh conditions of a geopressured resource was unproven, so a demonstration power plant was built and operated on the Pleasant Bayou geopressured resource in Texas. This one megawatt facility provided valuable data over a range of operating conditions. This power plant was a first-of-a-kind demonstration of the hybrid cycle concept. A hybrid cycle was used to take advantage of the fact that geopressured resources contain energy in more than one form -- hot water and natural gas. Studies have shown that hybrid cycles can yield thirty percent more power than stand-alone geothermal and fossil fuel power plants operating on the same resource. In the hybrid cycle at Pleasant Bayou, gas was burned in engines to generate electricity directly. Exhaust heat from the engines was then combined with heat from the brine to generate additional electricity in a binary cycle. Heat from the gas engine was available at high temperature, thus improving the efficiency of the binary portion of the hybrid cycle. Design power output was achieved, and 3445 MWh of power were sold to the local utility over the course of the test. Plant availability was 97.5% and the capacity factor was over 80% for the extended run at maximum power production. The hybrid cycle power plant demonstrated that there are no technical obstacles to electricity generation at Pleasant Bayou. 14 refs., 38 figs., 16 tabs.

• Research Organization: Holt (Ben) Co., Pasadena, CA (USA)
• Sponsoring Organization: DOE; USDOE, Washington, DC (USA)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-85ID12578
• OSTI ID: 5850540
• Report Number(s): DOE/ID/12578-2-Vol.1; ON: DE91012196
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

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030300 -- Natural Gas-- Drilling
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030400 -- Natural Gas-- Products & By-Products
15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
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150802 -- Geothermal Power Plants-- Power Plant Systems & Components
20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS
200102 -- Fossil-Fueled Power Plants-- Power Cycles
BINARY-FLUID SYSTEMS
BRINES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
COMBINED-CYCLE POWER PLANTS
COMBUSTION
CONDENSERS
CONSTRUCTION
CONVERSION
COST
DEMONSTRATION PLANTS
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DOCUMENT TYPES
EFFICIENCY
ENERGY CONVERSION
ENERGY SYSTEMS
ENERGY TRANSFER
FEDERAL REGION VI
FOSSIL-FUEL POWER PLANTS
FOULING
GEOLOGIC DEPOSITS
GEOPRESSURED SYSTEMS
GEOTHERMAL ENERGY CONVERSION
GEOTHERMAL POWER PLANTS
GIGAWATT POWER RANGE
Geothermal Legacy
HEAT TRANSFER
HYBRID SYSTEMS
MINERAL RESOURCES
NATURAL GAS DEPOSITS
NORTH AMERICA
OPERATION
OXIDATION
PERFORMANCE
POWER PLANTS
POWER RANGE
POWER RANGE 01-10 GW
PROGRESS REPORT
RESOURCES
TEXAS
THERMAL POWER PLANTS
THERMOCHEMICAL PROCESSES
USA