engleski

Drying Wool by Means of Geothermal Energy

There are totally 28 geothermal reservoirs in Croatia, among which only 5 are high temperature resources. All reservoirs can be generally classified in two groups, according to the temperatures of geothermal water. The first group, having temperature less than 100oC, is suitable for the direct energy use. In the second group with temperature above the 100oC, except of the direct use, the electricity can be produced as well. Geothermal heat in Croatia is used only on 14 reservoirs, for direct purposes. The heat power amounts to 42 MWt, while the percentage of utilization of their available power is less than 50%. This condition can be improved on many geothermal locations by means of cascade processes. Excellent example for such a kind of energy usage is Heber Province in China, where geothermal heat is applied in textile industry as well. Geothermal well Gao4, at 3432 m depth, having wellhead temperature of 114oC and artesian flow of 2160 m3/d, has the highest well temperature in Northern China. Located in Gaoyang County, it has been used for drying wool. The drying equipment is a geothermal net conveyor belt drier. The moisture content by wet basis of the moist wool is 40% and the moisture content by wet basis of the dry wool is 15% the dry wool product capacity is 280 kg/h, the dehydrating capacity is 120 kg/h and the temperature of the hot air can reach about 95º ; ; C. The residual water leaving the geothermal drier is also used in geothermal greenhouses (7337 m2), district heating (1500 m2), fish ponds (3335 m2) and geothermal bathing.

geothermal energy; textile industry; cascade process

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