Wednesday, 1 June

Design of Radial Turbines for Geothermal Applications

In the QGECE Weekly Seminar Series, Carlos Ventura gave a talk on Tuesday on the progress in his PhD Thesis. His Thesis topic is development of computer tools for aerodynamic design and performance optimisation of radial turbines for geothermal power applications. On the side, he is also spending some time on characterising thermoelectric generators for the same purpose with Andrew Rowlands. I should write about the thermoelectric generators on another day.

Flash geothermal plants typically use axial turbines. Radial turbines are the preferred choice for the industry at the moment for binary plants. At the moment, radial turbines are limited in size. The largest radial turbine in use is 15 MWe. By comparison, the largest axial turbine is, as far as I know, the 139-MWe Fuji turbine installed in New Zealand Mighty River Power Nga Awa geothermal power plant.

The unavailability of radial turbines at sizes larger than 15-MW can be a limitation in the future when EGS power becomes more common because EGS plants will use binary plants and they will also use larger power plants by combining the production from several wells. A better understanding of radial turbines may not only push the size boundaries but will also help the QGECE work towards the design of supercritical turbines. Of course, a better understanding of radial turbines may also make us decide that they are difficult to scale up. This is work in progress.

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