Cooling Tower

Cooling Tower

Plant equipment that is used to dissipate heat into air rather than into a river. Cooling is induced in two different ways. For binary plants, dry cooling towers use fans to draw air across a heat exchanger and this removes heat from a working fluid causing gas to condense into liquid. In flash steam plants, wet cooling towers condense water vapor via evaporation to provide a continuous supply of cooled water that is run through the outlet of a condensing turbine.

Geothermal Glossary

Word of the Week – Brine

Word of the Week – Brine

Brine In producing geothermal fields, this term refers to the hot water that is produced from wells. It is rarely as salty as implied. Instead, the salinities of most natural hot waters are commonly less than seawater, but they contain a wide range of rock-forming...

Word of the Week – Cap Rock

Word of the Week – Cap Rock

Cap Rock A poorly permeable or impermeable layer that overlies a geothermal reservoir. The term is borrowed from the oil industry and was once considered an essential feature of a producing geothermal resource in confining the flow and pressure of hot water....

Word of the Week – Casing Shoe

Word of the Week – Casing Shoe

Casing Shoe In geothermal wells, this is the bottom of the cemented casing string. Below the casing shoe, the well may be unprotected and open to the surrounding rock or lined with a slotted liner. The depth of the casing shoe generally coincides with the top of the...

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