Thermosyphon boiler for a geothermal pumping system
AssigneeSperry Corporation
InventorAndrej M. R. Aplenc
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Abstract
In a geothermal energy conversion system having a boiler, a liquid trap, and a turbine driven pumping unit, a thermosyphon boiler is disposed between the liquid trap and the turbine driven pump. The thermosyphon boiler evaporates the liquid collected in the liquid trap and then superheats the evaporated liquid and steam emitted from the boiler such that the steam directed into the turbine driven pumping unit is of extremely high quality.
Claims4
An improved geothermal pumping system of the type having a boiler for vaporizing a working fluid with thermal energy from geothermal brine and a turbine driven pumping unit which is disposed in the geothermal brine and which is driven by the vaporized working fluid, wherein the improvement comprises:
- means for separating liquid droplets from the vaporized working fluid emitted from said boiler;
- means for collecting said liquid droplets;
- a first plurality of tubes, operatively coupled to said liquid collecting means and disposed in a heat transfer relationship to an upwardly flowing geothermal fluid, for evaporating the collected liquid;
- and
- a second plurality of tubes, responsive to the vaporized working fluid emitted from said boiler and to the output of said first plurality of tubes and disposed in a heat transfer relationship to the upwardly flowing geothermal brine, for superheating the evaporated liquid emitted from said first plurality of tubes and the vaporized working fluid emitted from said boiler.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.