Brine recovery solution at Bacman geothermal plant, Philippines

Bacman geothermal plant, Philippines (source: Turboden)

In late 2020, Philippines-headquartered Energy Development Corporation (“EDC”), through its subsidiary Bacman Geothermal Inc., selected Turboden SpA and MHI Power (Philippines) Plant Service Corp. (“MHI-PSC”) as suppliers of engineering, procurement, and technical advisory and commissioning services of the 29 MW ORC power plant project in Palayan Bayan at the Bacman geothermal facility, for offshore and onshore activities respectively.

The capability of Turboden to provide an advanced technological solution that optimizes the electrical performance accommodating at the same time all the technical constraints of the geothermal site and resource was one of the key success factors of this deal together with the extensive and fruitful cooperation had with EDC working team. All this was possible despite the worldwide spreading of the pandemic, thanks to the strength and the resilience of all parties involved in the negotiation. A pivotal contribute is coming also from the Government of Japan, which will partially fund the project under their JCM financing program. Such program is aimed to facilitate the diffusion of advanced low-carbon or decarbonizing technologies, contributing to sustainable development of developing countries and allowing GHG emission reductions or removals partially used to achieve Japan’s emission reduction targets.

The ORC power plant technical configuration consists in a double-pressure two-working fluids Organic Rankine Cycle powered by the hot brine stream coming from the separator at site and that is going to be fully re-injected underground (“brine recovery”). The electrical generator driven by the two axial turbines will provide base-load green power to the electric grid. Cooling towers and pH-mod equipment for silica scale inhibition complete the system. Turboden’s global supply chain, proprietary turbine design, and in-house process design and control philosophy will ensure high quality equipment and services supply.  MHI-PSC will provide onshore transportation service from port to site, and technical advisory to installation and commissioning services at site. The Commercial Operation Date is planned at the end of year 2022.

Turboden will design the complete ORC power plant, capable to produce 29 MW gross (25 MW net) of green power on design conditions, with estimated CO2 emission reduction exceeding 72.000 tons per year. Such brine recovery solution will expand the current geothermal facility at site without drilling any additional well nor building the power plant outside existing geothermal concessions, providing approximately +20% of additional power to be added to the current 140 MW installed capacity with zero additional CO2 emission.

“We are proud of having a chance to serve EDC, the largest geothermal developer globally. Brine recovery projects have a huge potential worldwide and this cutting edge plant will mark the way forward” noted Andrea Magalini, Sales Director at Turboden.

Brine recovery projects, indeed, have typically lower investment risks and higher bankability, thanks to the resource already available, compared to greenfield geothermal projects, and could be replicated in many other geothermal sites around the world. Single-flash steam power plants represent almost 45% of the total geothermal capacity installed worldwide, with more than 6 GW in operation. Potentially, the brine recovery solution could add from 15% to 40% of power production, which means from 900 MW to 2,4 GW of potential additional geothermal power capacity worldwide.

Source: Company release