Title: Design of Steam Gathering System for Menengai Geothermal Field, Kenya

Abstract

Utilizing high temperature geothermal resources for power generation requires
design of steam gathering system to transport geothermal fluids. The aim of this
project is develop a model that can be used to optimize the steam gathering and the
re-injection systems in Menengai geothermal field. The objective function includes
the capital investment and the operational cost. The constraints are the steam and
water velocity and the upward slope of the two phase flow pipelines. To test the
model, different scenarios are analyzed considering different location of the power
plants, the separators and the re-injection system. For each scenario the variable
topography distance transform is used to locate the separators and find the pipeline
route. Topology design optimizes the pipe network and flow in each pipe. The
geothermal area is represented by digital elevation matrix (DEM) that is a digital file
consisting of the terrain elevations for ground positions at regularly spaced
horizontal intervals. Variable topography distance transform (VTDT) is based on
chamfer metric distance transform algorithm where the height points from the DEM
is incorporated in such way that the heights are assigned to each cell. Developed
model is used to size basic components of steam gathering system using Menengai
geothermal field data.