Kyushu Electric Starts Testing Geothermal Binary Power Generation

Kyushu Electric Power Co. announced on February 18, 2004, that it has started testing for feasibility the newly-constructed Hatchobaru Binary Cycle Power Generation Plant (generation capacity of 2,000 kilowatts) located on the same site as its existing Hatchobaru Geothermal Power Plant in Oita Prefecture in southern Japan.

The binary-cycle power generation system drives turbines using a working medium that has a low boiling point. Thus, hydrothermal water at even relatively low temperatures can be used as a power source. At the Hatchobaru Binary Power Plant, pentane, a kind of hydrocarbon, is used as the working fluid medium, where chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) or CFC alternatives are conventionally used. This is the first time that a geothermal power plant in Japan will use pentane as a working fluid.

Kyushu Electric will continue the trial run for the next two years to examine the system's durability and cost effectiveness. If the plant is put into practical operation, it will become the first binary geothermal power plant in Japan.




Posted: 2004/04/28 05:40:21 PM
Japanese version