RESEARCH ARTICLE

Thermo-economic analysis of a direct supercritical CO2 electric power generation system using geothermal heat

  • Xingchao WANG 1 ,
  • Chunjian PAN , 2 ,
  • Carlos E. ROMERO 2 ,
  • Zongliang QIAO 3 ,
  • Arindam BANERJEE 4 ,
  • Carlos RUBIO-MAYA 5 ,
  • Lehua PAN 6
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  • 1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO 80401, USA; National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), Golden, CO 80401, USA
  • 2. Energy Research Center, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA
  • 3. Key Laboratory of Energy Thermal Conversion and Control of the Ministry of Education, Southeast University, Nanjing 210096, China
  • 4. Department of Mechanical Engineering and Mechanics, Lehigh University, Bethlehem, PA 18015, USA
  • 5. Mechanical Engineering, Universidad Michoacán de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, Morelia, Michoacán C.P. 58030, Mexico
  • 6. Energy Geosciences Division, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA

Received date: 15 Apr 2020

Accepted date: 18 Jan 2021

Published date: 15 Apr 2022

Copyright

2021 Higher Education Press

Abstract

A comprehensive thermo-economic model combining a geothermal heat mining system and a direct supercritical CO2 turbine expansion electric power generation system was proposed in this paper. Assisted by this integrated model, thermo-economic and optimization analyses for the key design parameters of the whole system including the geothermal well pattern and operational conditions were performed to obtain a minimal levelized cost of electricity (LCOE). Specifically, in geothermal heat extraction simulation, an integrated wellbore-reservoir system model (T2Well/ECO2N) was used to generate a database for creating a fast, predictive, and compatible geothermal heat mining model by employing a response surface methodology. A parametric study was conducted to demonstrate the impact of turbine discharge pressure, injection and production well distance, CO2 injection flowrate, CO2 injection temperature, and monitored production well bottom pressure on LCOE, system thermal efficiency, and capital cost. It was found that for a 100 MWe power plant, a minimal LCOE of $0.177/kWh was achieved for a 20-year steady operation without considering CO2 sequestration credit. In addition, when CO2 sequestration credit is $1.00/t, an LCOE breakeven point compared to a conventional geothermal power plant is achieved and a breakpoint for generating electric power generation at no cost was achieved for a sequestration credit of $2.05/t.

Cite this article

Xingchao WANG , Chunjian PAN , Carlos E. ROMERO , Zongliang QIAO , Arindam BANERJEE , Carlos RUBIO-MAYA , Lehua PAN . Thermo-economic analysis of a direct supercritical CO2 electric power generation system using geothermal heat[J]. Frontiers in Energy, 2022 , 16(2) : 246 -262 . DOI: 10.1007/s11708-021-0749-9

Acknowledgments

This work was funded by the Mexican National Council of Science and Technology (CONACYT in Spanish), under the Sectorial Fund for Energy Sustainability, CONACYT-Secretary of Energy (No. S0019-2012-04).

Electronic Supplementary Material

ƒSupplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-021-0749-9 and is accessible for authorized users.
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