Navigation : EXPO21XX > RENEWABLE ENERGY 21XX > H29: Universities - Renewable Energy Research > The University of Queensland
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  • Funded by the Queensland State Government, the Queensland Geothermal Centre of Excellence of the University of Queensland is the largest investment in geothermal energy research in Australia.
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  • Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence

  • The Centre is currently undertaking research to progress large-scale electricity generation from subterranean hot rocks and hot sedimentary aquifers in Queensland and the rest of Australia.

    The key areas of research for the centre include:
    • improved technologies for next-generation geothermal power plants
    • air-cooled condenser technologies for plants located in dry areas
    • electricity transmission and power network modelling
    • geothermal reservoir exploration, characterisation and management

    The Centre has recently signed a research agreement with a US power plant and turbine manufacturer, Verdicorp, to develop supercritical turbines and supercritical cycle equipment including heat exchangers and air-cooled condensers and new cycle fluids and fluid mixtures suitable for supercritical cycles. The technologies targeted by this collaboration have the potential to increase geothermal productivity by 50%.

  • Next Generation Power Conversion Equipment 

  • The Queensland Geothermal Energy Centre of Excellence started a collaborative project with the US turbine and power plant manufacturer Verdicorp to develop supercritical turbines and plants using such turbines. The target technologies have the potential to increase the geothermal productivity by 50%.

    At the first instance, two supercritical turbine and cycle testing facilities will be built next year on the Pinjarra Hills campus of the University of Queensland to test and demonstrate supercritical cycles for medium and high-temperature resources. The medium-temperature plane will be transportable for testing and demonstrating the benefits of the new power plant technologies at remote geothermal sites. The following shows a pictorial view of this plant which will be commissioned by the end of 2011.

  • Air-Cooled Condensers

  • The QGECE is investigating new heat exchanger technologies and cooling tower construction methods for natural draft dry cooling towers. The use of natural draft towers in place of fan-cooled condensers has the potential to increase the net power production by up to 15% for a typical geothermal binary power plant.

    • The effect of Dust

    • QGECE started ambient dust monitoring in Innamincka in collaboration with Geodynamics to characterise ambient dust and its capacity to produce air-condenser fouling, including the size distribution, concentration and daily and seasonal variation. Data from such monitoring will help the Centre design dust-tolerant efficient heat exchangers .

    • Hybrid (Wet/Dry) Cooling Systems

    • The performance of air-cooled condensers can be enhanced on hot days by using a small amount of water to precool the inlet air stream. QGECE will design and build a natural draft dry cooling tower test station in Chincilla to investigate this option in connection with natural draft dry cooling towers to assist optimising air and hybrid cooling concepts for the 250-MW Solar Dawn Plant to be built in Chincilla under the Australian Federal Government’s Solar Flagship program.

    • Metal-Foam Heat Exchangers

    • In a new concept for air-cooled condensers, the heat exchanger tubes are covered by metal foams for better heat transfer without increasing pressure drop. The following figure shows some examples of metal foam heat exchangers and the QGECE Wind Tunnel where they are tested under simulated power plant conditions.

  • Geothermal Exploration

  • The QGECE has PhD students working with the School of Earth Sciences to better identify and characterise the natural of geothermal resource in Australia. These students are trying to answer the following questions:

      • This Program is aiming to answer the following questions:

      • • What makes granite “hot”?
        • What are the origins of the granites in Queensland?
        • Why do some granites have more heat-producing elements than others?
        • What caused the generation of heat-producing granites in Queensland?
        • How can we locate such granites without drilling deep exploration holes?
      • As a serendipitous result of such work, the QGECE team last year found evidence of a major asteroid impact about 300 million years by examining the quartz crystals from rocks underlying the Cooper Basin. The implications of this finding are still being investigated.

        The University of Queensland is one of the few universities in Australia that provides access to most of the necessary equipment and laboratory facilities. Thus much of the analytical work such as ICP-MS for trace element analysis, ICP-OS for major element analysis and TIMS for radiogenic isotope and geochronological studies is being carried out within the UQ campus.

  • Electricity Transmission and Power Network Modelling

      • Queensland transmission network areas

      • QGECE is investigating the most efficient transmission option for bringing remote geothermal electricity into the national power grid. System stability, reliability and cost are important considerations. We collaborate with PowerLink, the Queensland transmission company.