Direct Use of Geothermal Water

-
.
In addition to generating electricity, geothermal water is used directly in spas (balneology), to heat greenhouses (agriculture), and to speed the growth of fish and prawns (see aquaculture). The heat from geothermal water is used for industrial processes and for space heating in homes and other buildings. People in over 35 countries have developed geothermal water for such purposes.

Industry

Industrial uses of the heat from geothermal water include manufacturing paper, pasteurizing milk, and drying timber and other agricultural products. Geothermal waters are used in mining to speed the extraction of gold and silver from ore, and are also piped under sidewalks and roads to keep them from icing over in freezing weather.

Space Heating

One of the most common uses of geothermal water is for heating individual buildings or groups of buildings (district heating). A typical geothermal heating system supplies heat to buildings by pumping water (usually 60° C/140° F or hotter) from a geothermal reservoir. Heat from the geothermal water is transferred through a heat exchanger to city water contained in an adjacent separate piping system. This heated city water is then pumped into the buildings, while the geothermal water is injected back into the reservoir to be reheated so it can be used again.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Beryllium

-
. Beryllium, symbol Be, gray, brittle metallic element, with an atomic number of 4. It is in group 2 (or IIa) of the periodic table (see Periodic Law ). Beryllium was named for its chief mineral, beryl , an aluminum beryllium silicate. It was discovered as an oxide, now known as beryllia, in 1797 by French chemist Louis Nicolas Vauquelin. The free element was first isolated in 1828 independently by Friedrich Wöhler and Antonine Alexandre Brutus Bussy. Because the soluble compounds are sweet-tasting, the new element was first called glucinium, a reference to the sugar glucose . PROPERTIES AND OCCURRENCE Beryllium, one of the alkaline earth metals , ranks about 51st in natural abundance among the elements in the earth's crust. Its atomic weight is 9.012. Beryllium melts at about 1287° C (about 2349° F), boils at about 3000° C (about 5432° F), and has a specific gravity of 1.85. Beryllium has a high strength per unit weight. It tarnishes only slightly in air, becoming covered with a ...
Read more

Converting Food to Usable Energy

-
Cellular respiration is a complex series of chemical reactions that harvests the energy trapped in the bonds of glucose sugar molecules and converts it into a chemical form that can be stored for later use. Humans and other animals obtain glucose sugar molecules from food, such as the fruits and grains shown here, while plants create glucose sugars in the process of photosynthesis. Essential to the survival of most organisms on Earth, cellular respiration yields the energy that makes our bodies function properly.
Read more

Electricity and Magnetism

-
Image
. Many similarities exist between electric and magnetic phenomena. A magnet has two opposite poles, referred to as north and south. Opposite magnetic poles attract each other, and similar magnetic poles repel each other, exactly as happens with electric charges. The force with which magnetic poles attract or repel each other depends on the strength of the poles and the distance between them. This relationship is similar to the Coulomb’s inverse square law for electric charges. See also Magnetism . The similarities between electric and magnetic phenomena indicate that electricity and magnetism are related. Electricity produces magnetic effects and magnetism produces electric effects. The relationship between electricity and magnetism is called electromagnetism. See also Quantum Electrodynamics . Magnetic Effects of Electricity It has been noted that an electric field exists around any electric charge. If electric charges are moving, they constitute an electric current. The magnetic eff...
Read more