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Life cycle inventory of a flash geothermal combined heat and power plant located in Iceland

  • LCI METHODOLOGY AND DATABASES
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Abstract

Purpose

This paper presents a life cycle inventory (LCI) describing the material and energy demands for constructing and operating a geothermal combined heat and power (GCHP) plant as well as direct emissions of gases, waste water, and waste heat. The data are based on a newly constructed GCHP plant in Iceland, representing the design of both single flash (SF) and double flash (DF) power plants that currently produce the majority of electricity from geothermal plants worldwide.

Methods

Primary data were collected for the construction, operation, and maintenance of a GCHP plant. As the design and operation of geothermal flash power plants is site-specific due to the different nature of geothermal resources, a method of scaling data to a site specific parameter is proposed to make the LCI available as representative secondary data for such plants. These parameters along with other data identified as site-specific serve as the minimum data to be collected for adjusting the presented data to represent other flash power plants with or without combined heat production.

Results

The construction stage dominates the material burdens for the electricity and heat production. For the life cycle of electricity, it includes 80 % of diesel fuel use (whereof 96 % originates from well drilling), while 99 % of groundwater is used during the operational stage. The use and composition of geothermal fluid is site-specific but accounts for all direct emissions from the electricity production. The main materials in terms of mass used for the construction of the GCHP plant are water, diesel, steel, cement, asphalt, bentonite, and silica flour. Mineral wool and aluminum were also among the main material contributors. Material and energy burdens per functional unit are generally higher for a SF plant compared with DF plants. For heat production, 1.7 MJ of waste heat from power generation is used to produce 1 MJ of usable heat.

Conclusions

By presenting LCI data scaled with site-specific parameters, the flexibility of its use is increased as secondary data. However, the collection of primary data for the composition of geothermal fluid and values for site specific parameters is always required to represent local conditions. Thus, the LCI for Hellisheiði GCHP can be regarded as representative data for electricity and heat from geothermal flash power plants.

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Notes

  1. The plant started its operation in 2006.

  2. Bjarnarflag power plant (1969–present), Krafla power plant (1977–present), and Svartsengi power plant (1978–present).

  3. The first whole year of operation of the fully developed power plant was 2012, whereas the heat production was better optimized in 2013 than 2012.

  4. Materials omitted were drilling foam, fluid loss additives, and cement retarder.

  5. Allocation of cold water pump materials is based on the amount of HP (6 units) and LP (1 unit) units assuming the cold water requirements are equally divided between each of the seven turbine-generator sets.

  6. The density of 90 °C hot water is 0.9653 kg/l

  7. Estimated by expert survey.

  8. Material excluded are perlite, cement retarder, fluid loss additives, and drilling foam.

  9. Energy flows including the combined heat production are used from Table 11 for the aggregated values in Table 13.

Abbreviations

CT :

Cooling tower

CW :

Cold water well

CWP :

Cold water pump

CWT :

Cold water tank

DA :

Deairator

DHHX :

Heat exchanger for district heating water

DHT :

District heating water tank

FV :

Throttle valve

GW :

Geothermal well

HPC :

High-pressure condenser

HPM :

High-pressure moisture remover

HPS :

High-pressure steam separator

HPTG :

High-pressure turbine-generator set

HWP :

Hot water pump

LPC :

Low-pressure condenser

LPM :

Low-pressure moisture remover

LPS :

Low-pressure steam separator

LPTG :

Low-pressure turbine-generator set

RW :

Reinjection well

WE :

Wellhead equipment

WS :

Well silencer

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Acknowledgments

The work is a part of the Primary Energy Efficiency (PEE) project that was funded by Nordic Energy Research and co-financed by Orkusjóður fund owned by the Government of Iceland and the Landsvirkjun Energy Research fund. Orkuveita Reykjavíkur supported the work by full access to data on the Hellisheiði GCHP plant along with expert advice. Mannvit and Verkís Consulting Engineers provided expert advice on data and process flow. Iceland Drilling and Iceland GeoSurvey (ÍSOR) provided expert advice on data gaps for the geothermal drilling process. Special thanks to Einar Gunnlaugsson and other specialists at Orkuveita Reykjavíkur as well as Elín Hallgrímsdóttir at Mannvit for their extensive support. Ragnar Gylfason is acknowledged for his contribution to preliminary data gathering.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Engineering and Natural Sciences, Department of Industrial Engineering, Mechanical Engineering and Computer Science, University of Iceland, VR-II, Hjardarhagi 2-6, 107, Reykjavik, Iceland

    Marta Rós Karlsdóttir, Ólafur Pétur Pálsson & Halldór Pálsson

  2. FORCE Technology, Park Allé 345, 2605, Brøndby, Denmark

    Larisa Maya-Drysdale

Authors
  1. Marta Rós Karlsdóttir
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  2. Ólafur Pétur Pálsson
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  3. Halldór Pálsson
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  4. Larisa Maya-Drysdale
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Marta Rós Karlsdóttir.

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Responsible editor: Rolf Frischknecht

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Karlsdóttir, M.R., Pálsson, Ó.P., Pálsson, H. et al. Life cycle inventory of a flash geothermal combined heat and power plant located in Iceland. Int J Life Cycle Assess 20, 503–519 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-014-0842-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11367-014-0842-y

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