Direct Use of Geothermal Energy in Mexico: Previous Results and Advances of the Projects Developed by CeMIE-Geo

Abstract

This paper describes the direct use application projects of geothermal energy previously developed by institutions such as Gerencia de Proyectos Geotermoeléctricos (GPG) and Instituto de Investigaciones Eléctricas (formerly IIE, now INEEL). Then, the direct use industrial applications existing in the country are described, followed by a description of the country´s medium and low temperature geothermal reserves, and finally the main results obtained by the geothermal direct use projects developed by the CeMIEGeo are described. Thus, under the auspices of the Mexican Center for Innovation in Geothermal Energy (CeMIEGeo) and with the support of CONACyT and the Energy Sustainability Fund, seven projects were developed in the following areas: Geothermal Ground-Source Heat Pumps (GSHP) for space conditioning of greenhouses (controlled agroindustry production) and different inhabited buildings; food dehydration systems (drying of fruits, vegetables and sea products); seawater desalination systems; small modular Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) binary power plants for electricity generation, and cascade systems. The main results of these projects include 13 GSHP systems with a capacity of 43 tons (150kWt); 4 food dehydrators; several ORC binary power plants of 10kWe and up; 1 seawater desalination plant able to generate 10 m3/day of desalinated water; and 1 Cascade Use system composed of an ORC binary power plant, an absorption cooling system and a food dehydrator. The GSHP projects were complemented with a study of the potential market of application in Mexico; two technical-economic feasibility studies, and a comparative study of GSHP against conventional space conditioning technologies.