Geothermal Energy: How Does It Work?

When the water or lava comes up from the inner core from either a volcano or from a geyser, the temperature of the liquid it produces would be able to produce the same result we get from using fossil fuel to supply our energy. Geothermal energy could possibly be used to directly heat buildings or used to power turbines and thus generate electricity.

He or she cites a couple examples of geotheramal water usage in Oregon and New Mexico. Both of which used it as a heating source in various different applications. In Oregon, it was used to keep roads and sidewalks from freezing over during the winter season. Also in New Mexico, the same principle was used to to keep the soil beneath the corps from freezing which resulted in a longer growing season. These are great advantages that support his defence on geothermal energy usage.

Geothermal Energy: it means the use of heated water and stream to power the power station for turning steam and heated water to electricity but it's expensive

4. Geothermal energy is the heat from the Earth. It's clean and sustainable. Resources of geothermal energy range from the shallow ground to hot water and hot rock found a few miles beneath the Earth's surface. Pros: 1. Renewable 2. Efficient 3. Easy transportation Cons: 1.Lots of water needed 2. Electricity is still needed. 3. Unlimited Steam Not Guaranteed

Many power plants still use fossil fuels to boil water for steam. Geothermal power plants, however, use steam produced from reservoirs of hot water found a couple of miles or more below the Earth's surface. There are three types of geothermal power plants: dry steam, flash steam, and binary cycle.

Geothermal energy is heat from the earth that is a clean and reliable source. Geothermal energy is converted to energy by steam that drives a generator and creates electricity. Geothermal energy contributes 12.5% of Costa Rica's energy. Costa Rica uses volcanic geothermal energy which comes from under the earth's crust, by extracting and cooling the steam it powers turbines that make electricity. An advantage of geothermal energy is that it is constantly generated and does not rely on the

There are other alternatives to oil drilling. Solar power is one. Also harnessing away for the sun, using devices called solar cells and converting sunlight into electrical light are good alternatives to oil drilling. Wind power may be another alternative to oil drilling, it generates through the raw power of Mother Nature. Massive turbines harvest the wind. When it strikes they start spinning, creating the energy to turn the electric generator and produce a certain amount of energy. Geo thermal energy is a way as well, it is exactly how it sounds (energy from the ground). I have to admit studies show that there is a downside to geothermal energy and that is that there are very few locations throughout out the world that harvest geothermal energy. The reason being is because the cost is great and the piping need for the geothermal energy takes up a lot of mass. The best alternative resource in my opinion is to use Wind turbines. For one it doesn’t take time for the turbines to get set up and running. The only thing with using a turbine is that it requires minimum speed wind and it is so unpredictable it’s a likely change it may not be able to fit the needs of a large amount of people. This is all renewable energy. Oil is not the main objective and

back to 1988 journal contributions by Wächtershäuser [10,15] who hypothesized that iron sulfide chemistry under hydrothermal conditions played a central role in prebiotic chemistry (i.e., the ironsulfur world). The hypothesis rests on the notion that the oxidation of FeS to form pyrite in hydrothermal submarine vent conditions provided the electrochemical power for the reduction of CO2 to organic molecules. The ``pyrite-pulled [11]'' reaction as proposed by Wächtershäuser was as follows [10,15]: FeS C H2S ! FeS2 C H2: (19) This proposed reaction provided the reducing power for the reduction of CO2 preceding the synthesis of biologically relevant compounds.

The U.S. Department of Energy Geothermal Technologies Program’s report, A History of Geothermal Energy Research and Development in the United States published in 2010 is a four volume series that covers the thirty year period between 1976 and 2006 of growth and development of geothermal energy in America. This report is as the primary source detailing what started the exploration, how it will be accessed, the engineering

If I really were to analyze the state of B.C, geothermal energy is sadly an ineffective method mainly due to the pollutants it creates. Considering this, what other methods of energy production could be used?

First of all, it is cheaper than using fossils fuels or nuclear energy. At first it might not be due to initial costs, but over time you get your money back for it. Investing in it will give you at least the same amount of energy as other sources, but for less money over time. Also, hydroelectric energy is renewable. This means it doesn’t pollute the air since they don’t produce carbon dioxide. Finally, their production rate can be altered. Depending on how much electricity is needed, the amount produced can be changed.

The main reasons for generating steam are to; use it to generate electricity in a power plant. The steam is pressurised and comes into contact with a turbine which then is forced to turn and when this is done around a magnetic field, electricity is formed. Another use for steam is to use it as a heat transfer material in the process industry. The steam that is generated inside a boiler will be transported into a heat exchanger, this then gives off its heat to allow the heating of the process fluid. The steam from both methods will condense when it gives up most of its energy and can be reused in the system in an attempt to save raw water usages.

Geothermal hot springs are naturally occurring geological phenomena widespread on Earth’s surface (Kormas et al., 2009). Environmental conditions for each geothermal hot spring can vary widely, even between neighboring sites (Oliver et al., 2011). Differences can be observed, for example, in chemical composition of spring water, ranges in temperature and pH, and levels of salinity and other mineral deposits (Jones and Renaut, 2013). According to Stan-Lotter et al. (eds.), “They [geothermal hot springs] can be regarded as islands, ecologically separated by large distances and physiochemical dispersal barriers” (p. 37). A combination of these factors help make geothermal hot springs unique as microbial habitats. However, one overarching similarity among geothermal hot springs appears to be the pattern of organisms that tend to inhabit these sites: thermophilic microbes. Thermophilic microbes thrive at fairly high temperatures, with optimal growth ranging between 55 and 80 °C (Lopez et al., 2013). While several studies have recognized thermophilic microbes belonging to the Bacteria domain, and their respective viruses (Kormas et al., 2009; Grogan, 2013; Bhatia et al., 2015), much of the reviewed literature on hot-spring microbiota have focused particularly on the Archaea domain, and their respective viruses, as they tend to dominate extreme thermal environments (Mochizuki et al., 2010; Pina et al., 2011; Bhatia et al., 2015; Snyder et al., 2015).

A geothermal well was built beneath the Park-Stradley, Seibert, and Smith-Steeb dorms on south campus of The Ohio State University. The project was put on by the Office of Student Life as part of their South High-Rise Project which took place before the 2012 school year. The geothermal system was designed to sustain several hundred refrigeration tons of heat from the ground and is currently not being used to capacity to heat the previously stated droms on south campus. Due to a surplus in the system, Student Life would like to know if running piping to the Union and/or Drinko Hall would have a reasonable return on investment.

Turbine is used as steam driven to convert heat energy to electric power in thermal power plant. Coal is burnt in a boiler to convert water into steam. By using Rankine cycle concept, the steam is expand in turbine to produces mechanical power, where the energy is transferred by a force to drives the alternator coupled to the turbine. Then after the steam is passed through turbine, the steam is condensed in a condenser to convert into liquid and recycled to its original temperature in vapor state. The energy efficiency of a conventional thermal power station is typically 33% to 48%. The figure 1 shows the general layout of the thermal power plant and the figure 2 illustrates the components of the thermal power plant.