A STUDY OF FIELD GEOTHERMAL POWER POTENTIAL & THERMODYNAMIC CONCEPTS OF PROSPECTIVE BINARY POWER CYCLE BASED GEOTHERMAL POWER PLANT FOR TATAPANI GEOTHERMAL FIELD

Tatapani Geothermal field is one of the most promising low-enthalpy geothermal fields in central India, located on Son-Narmada lineament in the state of Chhattisgarh, India. The Tatapani geothermal field geological, geochemical & reservoir data has been compiled and analysed for evaluating true power potential & better understanding of the field. The low enthalpy geothermal reservoirs can be utilized for power production using Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) or binary power cycle. Based on previous research works done, the Tatapani geothermal field has been found to be very prospective and has got huge potential for power generation. The binary power cycle has been studied in detail along with thermodynamic concepts. In addition, similar low enthalpy geothermal power plants (conceptual & existing both) have been thoroughly studied in order to understand the concepts and methodology to perform technical feasibility based on thermodynamic and exergy analysis. The literature review covers the previous works done on Tatapani geothermal field including works on other geothermal fields in India along with previous research works for Thermodynamic & Exergy Analysis carried-out for binary geothermal power plants across the world for similar low enthalpy prospects. The methods of performing thermodynamic and exergy analysis for a potential geothermal power plant has been studied and compared. Exergy analysis highlights the areas of primary exergy destruction at various plant components and can be illustrated in the form of exergy flow diagram. The loss of exergy indicates the potential reasons for the inefficiencies within a process and exergic efficiency as conversion of input heat energy from the brine in to useful work output. The exergic efficiencies can be calculated for each component along with exergy destruction. The detailed study has been conducted in order to gather the knowledge regarding conducting the feasibility of setting up binary geothermal power plant at Tatapani from technical point of view using thermodynamic concepts.