Maximising the working fluid flow as a way of increasing power output of geothermal power plant

This paper presents a method of increasing the power output of a geothermal power plant based on organic working fluid. The power is raised by increasing the flow of geothermal water supplied to the evaporator by means of returning the stream of geothermal water from downstream of the evaporator for a repeated passage through that heat exchanger. Such arrangement increases the flow of the working fluid in the circuit. Analyses have been conducted for a power plant using several types of organic fluids. The results obtained show that there is one optimum evaporation temperature of the working fluid, which depends on the quantity of the recycled geothermal water, at which the capacity of the Clausius-Rankine is the highest. (C) 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.