MSc defence by Roy Bandoro Swandaru

UNU-GTP MSc student Roy Bandoro Swandaru, from Indonesia, defended his MSc thesis etitled "Modeling and optimization of possible bottoming units for general single flash geothermal power plants", Thursday May 14, 2009. The defence was held at the University of Iceland, in VR-II. The supervisors on the MSc project were Halldór Pálsson and Tómas Philip Rúnarsson, and the external examiner at the defence was Páll Valdimarsson.

Abstract

When utilizing geothermal fields for power production, a single flash power plant is often the initial plant to be built. As July 2004, there were 135 units of this kind in operation
in 18 countries around the world. They constitute nearly 40% percent of the total installed geothermal power capacity in the world. In most cases, considerable amount of
hot brine is wasted when using single flash plants, but the energy from this brine can be utilized for additional power generation.

This master project was performed to fulfill a need of a fast and easy way to determine the optimum specific power output, based on a given enthalpy of a geothermal fluid.
Four energy conversion systems were considered: double flash, organic Rankine cycle (ORC), advanced ORC and Kalina cycle. They were assumed to be installed as a
bottoming unit of a currently installed single flash plant. The optimum specific power output of the combined single flash and the bottoming units is determined, based on an
enthalpy range of the geothermal fluid from 500 to 2,000 kJ/kg. Furthermore a comparison of optimum specific power output of the combined plants is performed.

The study is based on fundamental thermodynamic principles of energy and mass conservation, which uses a new methodology for modeling and optimization. Modeling is
performed by using material data from the REFPROP7 database along with a Fortran to MATLAB interface. Optimization is performed by using robust state of the art techniques based on evolutionary search. A cost analysis is also performed to get specific levelized annual cost of the combined plants.

The MSc thesis will be published by the University of Iceland, and by the UNU-GTP. The thesis will soon be available online at www.unugtp.is

Roy´s studies were financed by a fellowship from the government of Iceland through the UNU-GTP.

A proud presenter

Ingvar, Tómas, Roy and Halldór

 
Roy among friends (UNUGTP MSc Fellows Kiflom, Hary, Mulugeta, Tesha, Erlindo and Manuel)