Friday, December 20, 2019

New Zealand: Geo40 and Climeon to Establish Combined Mineral extraction and Geothermal Power Production Plant Next Year

Climeon enters strategic partnership with Geo40 (News Release)

Geo40's commercial demonstration plant at Ohaaki.
Climeon has entered into a collaboration agreement with the New Zealand-based geothermal minerals firm Geo40 to strengthen the companies’ geothermal offering and enable an expansion into waste heat recovery at existing geothermal power plants, so-called bottoming cycles. The companies will be working together to establish a first combined mineral extraction and power production plant during 2020.

Geo40 has developed a technology to extract silica and other minerals from geothermal brine, the hot wastewater that remains after high temperature geothermal power production. The silica in the brine causes scaling in geothermal pipes and wells and limits the heat that can be extracted and utilized for power generation. By extracting and removing the silica and other valuable minerals like lithium, Geo40’s technology reduces operating costs for geothermal power stations, while producing sustainably sourced minerals. The filtered water from Geo40’s application can then be utilized in Climeon’s Heat Power modules to produce clean electricity and increase power output at geothermal power stations. Bringing together the two firms’ technologies opens up a wide range of global opportunities, particularly in recovering waste heat from existing geothermal power plants, so called bottoming cycles.  


From the Global Geothermal News archives: