MSc defence by John Joseph Lubuva

John Joseph Lubuva from Tanzania, MSc Fellow in Sustainable Energy Engineering at the Reykjavík University will defend his MSc project on Thursday 14 October, 2021 at 13:00 in room M208.

The title of the project is:

Thermo-Economic Optimization of Slim Well Power Cycles: A Case of Ngozi Geothermal Project-Tanzania

John's supervisors are:
Dr. Guðrún Arnbjörg Sævarsdóttir, Associate Professor at Reykjavik University
Dr. Vijay Chauhan, Chief Research Officer at GEG Power, Iceland.

The external examiner is María S. Guðjónsdóttir, Assistant Professor at School of Science and Engineering, Reykjavik University

Abstract
Ngozi geothermal field located in Mbeya Tanzania, is the main geothermal project that the country focuses on, aiming at producing clean energy in term of both electricity and heat. The project is an exploration drilling phase. The present study focuses on developing an optimized strategy in terms of wellbore size selection and power plant technology to be used, for the development of Ngozi geothermal field in Tanzania. To obtain this, a comparative thermo-economic analysis of slim wells against full size wells is done for a selection of power plant cycles. To obtain a realistic estimate of the wellbore output, as required for the thermo-economic analysis, well bore data from Pritchett [1] is used as basis for the analysis. The geothermal field is assumed to be liquid dominated. Results show that, binary cycle has the highest first and second law efficiencies, produces the highest net-work output, and offers the lowest total cost per unit Megawatt compared to single and double flash power cycles. The binary technology would therefore be the most suitable power plant technology to be employed in Ngozi geothermal prospect. Apart from the capability to produce the highest amount net-work output and lowest cost per unit megawatt compared to the other slim wellbore diameters, the well can support testing. If a geothermal field is liquid dominated and low enthalpy, slim wells would be more suitable for the power production instead of full-size wells. It can be concluded that in liquid dominated, low enthalpy geothermal fields, where a decision is to be made to drill slim wells, 15 cm well bore diameter slim wells are more suitable. It has also been shown that it takes less time to break even when slim wells are used to produce power compared to full size wells. The results from this work are expected to equip developers including TGDC with adequate information to approach exploration drilling with a holistic and strategic view of minimizing the total investment cost and using exploration slim holes more productively compared to the traditional way. The aim is to improve energy efficiency and prove the business case for start-up geothermal projects with production taking place after drilling and testing successful slim wells instead of just plugging them. Moreover, to use slim well for production, proper casing design must be used to allow the flow of adequate quantity of geothermal fluids for production of electricity.