Geothermal plants: pump energy, reinjection, brine processes
Deep geothermal plants spend pump energy and watch reinjection pressure; lithium from brine is a new process. How to check optimisation and control first.
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Pump energy and reinjection pressure in deep geothermal plants
What happens. As more deep geothermal plants are built, wells sit closer together and share the same reservoir. Production pumps lift hot water, reinjection pumps push it back, and the operating point of both is mostly set by hand.
What it costs. Pump power is a large part of the plant’s own electricity use, and a reinjection pressure that is higher than needed wastes more of it. A neighbouring project that changes its flow can change yours.
Why the usual fix fails. Fixed setpoints are safe but expensive. A reservoir simulation is too slow and too detailed to run the pumps every day.
How a fixed-price remote diagnosis checks it. From operating data (flows, pressures, temperatures, pump power), I estimate how the reservoir responds to changes in flow. The fixed-price remote diagnosis tells you whether optimised production and reinjection, possibly shared with a heat network dispatch, could lower the pump energy, and what data you would need to trust it.
Lithium from geothermal brine is a new process with unknown long-term behaviour
What happens. The hot brine from some geothermal wells contains lithium. Direct extraction plants take it out of brine at high temperature and pressure, and few have run long enough to show how they age.
What it costs. Scaling, corrosion and changing brine composition can make a plant drift from its design within months. A process that is new in every step is slow to start and hard to run at a constant yield.
Why the usual fix fails. Pilot results from one brine do not carry over to another. Fixed operating recipes from the lab do not follow a feed that changes.
How a fixed-price remote diagnosis checks it. From pilot data and brine analyses, I check which process models and which computed values would let you control yield and fouling. The fixed-price remote diagnosis tells you whether a process model and control concept can be built from the data you have, and what a longer test should measure.
Check it on your plant first: a fixed-price remote diagnosis
EUR 4,500 net · 5 working days · remote · availability on request · freelance or through temporary agency work
Within a fixed scope and at a fixed price, I review your data, control structure and measurements remotely and tell you whether the problem on this page is behind your symptoms and what fixing it would take. You get a short summary for decision-makers and a technical report for your engineers.