A low boiling point medium power plant in which heated waste gas, such as furnace gas, geothermic steam, etc., is used as a heat source for heating an intermediate thermal medium by means of an indirect heat exchanger, and the intermediate thermal medium is used as a heat source for heating a turbine driving low boiling point medium by means of a direct heat exchanger. The indirect heat exchanger and the direct heat exchanger are rendered into a unitary structure and contained in a sealed housing together with a turbine, a generator and a condenser, whereby a compact overall size can be obtained in a low boiling point medium power plant.

In a geothermal electric power generating plant of the type wherein a flow stream of hot geothermal brine from a production well is partially flashed to steam for turbine motive power, system and method for removing most of the entrained noncondensable gas content of the brine proximate the high temperature end of the plant, while at the same time recovering most of the heat energy from steam necessarily released with the noncondensable gases. The noncondensable gases such as carbon dioxide, hydrogen sulfide, ammonia, and boric acid, together with a substantial amount of high pressure, high temperature steam, are separated from the brine flow stream before its entry into conventional flash portions of the plant. A heat exchange system is employed to transfer heat from the separated steam and its condensate and from the separated gases to substantially pure turbine exhaust water condensate so as to boil the pure water for turbine motive steam. The resulting heat loss from the separated steam condenses it and thereby separates out the noncondensable gases. Removal of the noncondensables enables a substantial increase in net plant power output to be achieved, and substantially reduces plant capital costs and maintenance expenses.

A system is disclosed for generating energy from a geothermal heat source. The system includes a fluid injection system configured for injecting fluid into a subterranean formation and a fluid extraction system configured for extracting fluid from the subterranean formation after being heated by the formation. The system further includes a heat transformer configured to receive a first fluid heated by the geothermal heat source at a first temperature and adapted to heat a second fluid to a second temperature via a series of chemical reactions. Furthermore, the system includes an energy generation unit configured to receive heated the second fluid at the second temperature from the heat transformer to increase the temperature of a third fluid which is used to generate energy.

Energy is extracted from geothermal brines by direct contact with a working fluid such as isobutane which is immiscible with the brine in a geothermal boiler. The geothermal boiler provides a distributor arrangement which efficiently contacts geothermal brine with the isobutane in order to prevent the entrainment of geothermal brine in the isobutane vapor which is directed to a turbine. Accordingly the problem of brine carry-over through the turbine causes corrosion and scaling thereof is eliminated. Additionally the heat exchanger includes straightening vanes for preventing startup and other temporary fluctuations in the transitional zone of the boiler from causing brine carryover into the turbine. Also a screen is provided in the heat exchanger to coalesce the working fluid and to assist in defining the location of the transitional zone where the geothermal brine and the isobutane are initially mixed.

An energy producing apparatus and method are provided to harness thermal energy from a down hole resource (such as oil or gas) on an offshore rig and to generate electrical power from the thermal energy. This may include a pipe to receive either the high temperature gas or oil and a power module coupled to the pipe to convert thermal energy from the received oil or gas to electrical power.