The heat conducting capability of a vertically extending dome or spire or vein or other type deposit of a highly heat conductive mineral such as rock salt, is utilized to pipe heat from a deep-seated high temperature geologic structure inaccessible to modern bore hole drilling equipment into a heat exchange/conversion reservoir which is developed at an underground level within reach of modern bore hole completion techniques. Energy derived from the heat flowing into the reservoir through the con...

A method for cleaning the heat exchanger tubes of a geothermal power plant through which flows hot geothermal water containing dissolved minerals such as silica compounds, comprises tapping a source of mineral-free water at ambient temperatures, heating this water to a temperature nearly equal to or above that of the geothermal water and supplying the heated mineral-free water to the heat exchanger tubes to dissolve the minerals deposited thereupon. The heated cleaning water may be added to the ...

A method of heating a fluid which can be, for example, molten sodium, in a dry geothermal reservoir formation penetrated by an injection well and a production well comprising injecting the said fluid into the formation via the injection well, forcing the fluid through the formation with simultaneous heating and finally recovering the heated fluid via the production well. Utilizing heat exchangers at the surface, the heated fluid may be employed to supply process heating requirements for steam ma...

Method and apparatus for the nonpolluting generation of electrical power by the economic utilization of geothermal energy that is accessible through widespread sources of regenerative geothermal hot water. A well provides access to a geothermal hot water source having a temperature substantially above the flash point for atmospheric pressure, this hot water being conducted through heat exchangers wherein its heat energy is transferred to a power fluid employed in a closed Rankine heat engine cyc...

A pumpable slurry of coal-filled furfuryl alcohol, furfural, and/or a low molecular weight mono- or copolymer thereof containing, preferably, a catalytic amount of a soluble acid catalyst is used to cement a casing in a geothermal well.

A geothermal energy installation and system, in which the field of potable water is utilized by a secondary conduit system to route potable water from an inlet in the user's line coming from the potable water field but upstream of the user's meter, through the heat exchanger equipment of a user, and back to the field at a point upstream of the final treatment processing stage of the field. Thus, the thermal energy of the water of the field is utilized without adding the cost of the volume of pot...

A system for the generation of electricity from geothermal energy that is less expensive, more efficient, and avoids dealing with undesirable byproducts, is disclosed. The system of the present invention relies on using endothermic reactions at the bottom of a well to capture and store the geothermal heat, and exothermic reactions at the top of the well to release the heat stored within the products of the endothermic reactions. In the preferred embodiment, the endothermic reaction is the decomp...

A system for the generation of electricity from geothermal energy that is less expensive and more efficient, and avoids dealing with undesirable byproducts, is disclosed. The first system of the present invention relies on using endothermic reactions at the bottom of a well to capture and store the geothermal heat, and exothermic reactions at the top of the well to release the heat stored within the products of the endothermic reactions. In one preferred embodiment, the endothermic reaction is t...

The water in a closed loop geothermal system is caused to flush the system by reverse flow of water in and through the system. This provides a "well-to-well" full reversal of the water flow, thus permitting the factor of a primary receiver well to not only receive the geothermally used water from the primary well, but for that receiver well to then serve as an aquifer subsequently for causing the flow to go back to the primary well.

A vertical heat exchanger has a vertical inner conduit surrounded by an outer casing formed with ports with a piercing nosecone at the bottom for facilitating insertion into the earth. The space between the inner conduit and outer casing includes a conductive fill and receives water or salinated fluid through a control valve thus saturating the area surrounding the outer casing. Alternatively, the vertical conduit containing the heat exchanging fluid may be arranged parallel to one or more verti...