Objective
The main objective is the introduction of an innovative desalination technology, which will improve the energy efficiency and the cost effectiveness of low enthalpy geothermal driven desalination plants. This utilization scheme will exploit part of the proven geothermal resources at Sousaki Korinthos for the production of 300 m3/day of fresh desalinated water, partially solving water sufficiency problems in the region, inducing industrial, tourist and agricultural development in the area of Aghioi Theodoroi-Sousaki. The innovative desalination method to be developed is the hybrid multi effect flash-distillation under vacuum unit {ME(F-D) unit}, which combines desalination at a first step within a flash vessel and in the subsequent second and third steps with distillation under vacuum in vertical tubes. This innovative desalination plant can be considered as a second generation plant compared to previously developed first generation geothermal driven MED-VT desalination units.
The geothermal field of Sousaki Korinthos is located 5.5 Km west of the town of Aghioi Theodoroi, lying on the Northwest Edge of the active volcanic arc of the Aegean Sea. It is one of the most thoroughly investigated geothermal fields of Greece. According to Fytikas et al., the volcanic activity in the region has been manifested by the Krommyonia volcanic center, which has an age of Pliocene to Quartenary, being directly related to the active submersion Benioff zone of the Aegean sea. The proven, renewable and simultaneously the exploitable geothermal resource in the region has been calculated to be over 250.000.000 m3 at a flow-rate of 200 m3/h and with an average temperature of 70 deg. C. According to the results from the geothermal exploration, drilling activities and geochemical-hydrogeological investigations performed in the region since 1971 by numerous research institutes and researchers, the low enthalpy geothermal field of Sousaki Korinthos comprises of two reservoirs.
The shallower geothermal lies at depths of 80 to 150 m, within conglomerates and ophiolites, with temperatures of 58.8 to 75.5 deg. C, being accessible through 4 productive boreholes drilled during the 1980's by IGME.
The deeper geothermal reservoir lies at depths of 902 to 1080 m, within Triassic-Jurassic limestones, with temperatures of 59 to 62 deg. C, being accessible through 2 productive boreholes drilled during the period of 1992-93 by GEMEE-ETBA through funding of the VALOREN programme.
This will result to a total exploitable potential of 170 m3/h at an average temperature of approximately 70 deg. C. The thermal energy transferred by the desalination process will amount to 2.600.000 Kcal/h, corresponding to a total temperature drop within the primary geothermal circuit of approximately 16 deg. C. The proposed geothermal driven Hybrid multi-effect flash-distillation under vacuum desalination unit {ME(F-D) unit} is innovative since it comprises of the hybrid combination of a first flash and subsequent second and third or even fourth distillation under vacuum effects desalination stages with no preheating necessary. This unit can be regarded as a second generation desalination unit compared to the first generation simple MED-VT desalination unit being developed on Kimolos Isl. This innovation ensures an improvement of the energy efficiency and of the cost effectiveness of the desalination plant.
The desalination unit will be designed in such an innovative way that, if the geothermal water chemical composition permits, it will be feasible to desalinate the low enthalpy geothermal water itself, instead of the sea-water, further increasing the energy efficiency and cost effectiveness of the unit.
The total operation time of the unit per year is planned to be 6570 hours (Load factor = 75%), the total desalinated fresh-water production will be 82125 m3 per year.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques.
- engineering and technologychemical engineeringseparation technologiesdesalination
- engineering and technologychemical engineeringseparation technologiesdistillation
- engineering and technologyenvironmental engineeringenergy and fuelsrenewable energygeothermal energy
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Topic(s)
Call for proposal
Data not availableFunding Scheme
DEM - Demonstration contractsCoordinator
190 Pikermi
Greece