Geothermal Power Plants Applying Organic Rankine Cycle in Iran

With the rise of gas and oil prices to provide energy and the increase of environmental pollution, countries are trying to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy. There are various types of renewable energy. Geothermal energy is one of the independent energies of solar energy. Geothermal energy which has been stored in the earth for thousands of years from solar energy, as well as nuclear fissures which are originated in the depths of the Earth, are mainly concentrated in seismic and volcanic areas and the Earth's surface. The temperature in the Earth's core is more than 5000 degrees Celsius. The history of geothermal energy in Iran dates back to almost 50 years ago, when extensive research was started in this field. Researchers surveyed Sabalan, Damavand, Khoy, Mako and Sahand regions (Younes Noorollahi, Hossein Yousefi, 2010). Finally, three deep wells were excavated for exploration and two wells with a temperature of 240 ° C and a depth of 3197 meters were exploited. But the exploitation of geothermal energy is very costly. The major part of this cost is related to excavating wells, a great expense must be paid for excavating wells with a depth of more than 1000 meters. These expenses are generally not economically viable for Middle Eastern countries such as Iran, where cheap fossil fuels are costly and therefor the use of this energy is not very cherished in Iran. Due to its geographical location, Iran is loaded with oil wells in the central and southern part of the country. Some of these wells can be harvested and some of them have expired. The purpose of this project is to generate electricity with the help of heat inside oil and gas wells and the Rankin cycle. The Rankin cycle is one of the most efficient thermodynamic cycles for electricity generation. In this project, according to the condition of the well, the cycle is to be simulated and the obtained results will be examined. The out put of turbine power is equal to 1200 kW which it can support 1000 families electricity in the south of Iran.