Abstract
The prime mover for bulk electricity generation worldwide is the turbine, coupled to a condenser and alternator. A working fluid is taken through a cycle of changes of temperature and pressure and through the prime mover to produce torque, which involves heat supply and rejection to the surrounding environment. The dominant choice of working fluid remains as water, and the steam cycle has undergone over a century of development. Geothermal steam is not supplied as part of a closed cycle, but turbines for conventional (fossil-fuelled) power stations have required only relatively minor modifications in design to make use of it. However, the low temperature of most geothermal heat supplies compared to fossil-fuelled boilers has led to the choice of organic fluids as the working fluid, for which the design of the power station equipment, including the turbine and condenser, must be altered quite significantly.
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Watson, A. (2013). The Power Station. In: Geothermal Engineering. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8569-8_11
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-8569-8_11
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