A geothermal district heating system involves the transport of geothermal water at 110°C from a geothermal well to a city at about the same elevation for a distance of 12 km at a rate of 1.5 m3/s in 60-cm-diameter stainless-steel pipes. The fluid pressures at the wellhead and the arrival point in the city are to be the same. The minor losses are negligible because of the large length-to-diameter ratio and the relatively small number of components that cause minor losses. (a) Assuming the pump–motor efficiency to be 80 percent, determine the electric power consumption of the system for pumping. Would you recommend the use of a single large pump or several smaller pumps of the same total pumping power scattered along the pipeline? Explain. (b) Determine the daily cost of power consumption of the system if the unit cost of electricity is $0.06/kWh. (c) The temperature of geothermal water is estimated to drop 0.5°C during this long flow. Determine if the frictional heating during flow can make up for this drop in temperature.
A geothermal district heating system involves the transport of geothermal water at 110°C from a geothermal well to a city at about the same elevation for a distance of 12 km at a rate of 1.5 m3/s in 60-cm-diameter stainless-steel pipes. The fluid pressures at the wellhead and the arrival point in the city are to be the same. The minor losses are negligible because of the large length-to-diameter ratio and the relatively small number of components that cause minor losses. (a) Assuming the pump–motor efficiency to be 80 percent, determine the electric power consumption of the system for pumping. Would you recommend the use of a single large pump or several smaller pumps of the same total pumping power scattered along the pipeline? Explain. (b) Determine the daily cost of power consumption of the system if the unit cost of electricity is $0.06/kWh. (c) The temperature of geothermal water is estimated to drop 0.5°C during this long flow. Determine if the frictional heating during flow can make up for this drop in temperature.
Trending now
This is a popular solution!
Step by step
Solved in 7 steps with 12 images
