A Cost Comparison Between Geothermal and Cogeneration Sources of Process Heat

Abstract

Industrial process heat can be provided in several different ways. When considering geothermal energy as a source of process heat, the costs of using geothermal fluids are usually compared with the costs of using fossil fuels directly. For the range of process temperatures available to geothermal fluids, many process heat users have a third option. They can burn fossils fuels to generate electricity and then condense the turbine exhaust stem in a heat exchanger to provide the needed heat. For low temperature applications (less than say 300°F) this provides the process heat at a cost lower than using fossil fuel directly. In these situations liquid dominated geothermal resources are correspondingly less attractive source of heat.