The Performance of Proposed Binary Cycles for an Operating Single Flash Geothermal Power Plant

The flash geothermal power plants are the most common power plants used globally. The single flash conversion system has specific operational limitations related to its design, in terms of limited efficiency, resource utilization, and cost-effectiveness. Renewable and sustainable energy sources have become increasingly important making efficient energy conversion systems important for the energy transition. Therefore, renewable energy sources like geothermal and the conversion efficiency of the sources have generated interest. This study investigates the potential of different design options for exploiting geothermal resource in an operating flash power plant in Olkaria, Kenya. The study investigated the performance of geothermal flash and binary power plants and hence the benefits of integrating a binary cycle into existing flash plants using real data from an operating single flash power plant. The study showed that a hybrid system consisting of a flash and binary cycles will increase power generation by 10–15% hence more revenue and cleaner power. Most of the geothermal resources globally are low temperature to medium temperature resources which calls for the use of more efficient conversion technologies for maximum power output. The single flash geothermal power plants are the most common power generation systems for liquid dominated geothermal reservoirs, with several single flash geothermal power plants globally. However, the single flash power plants which can be installed over high temperature geothermal reservoirs have low first and second law efficiencies. Because of their lower pressure and temperature values of geo-fluid. This has led to increased popularity of the binary ORC power plants and hybrid conversion systems globally, as opposed to the single flash geothermal systems employed in most power plants in Kenya. This study shows that geothermal energy has greater potential by adapting efficient and cost-effective conversion technologies. The study recommends a cost benefit analysis of possible design options to select an optimal design option