Investigating granite properties to assess geothermal resource prospects

• Main Author: Chow, Boon Hui
• Other Authors: Wu Wei (CEE)
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: Nanyang Technological University 2022
• Subjects: Engineering::Civil engineering
• Online Access: https://hdl.handle.net/10356/157523
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

The use of renewable energy is growingly attractive in the pursuit of sustainability. Harvesting geothermal energy, in particular, has been popular in regions with rich volcanic activity. However, in Singapore, the presence of hot springs while not a result of active volcanism, suggests an underlying potential for the study of geothermal systems. In this study, heat transfer in Bukit Timah granite from the northern region of Singapore was tested under a temperature setting of 100°C, and fluid at varying flow rates of 5 mL/min, 10 mL/min and15 mL/min was injected into a cylindrical hole made in the rock sample. Heat transfer characteristics including specific heat transfer rate and overall heat transfer coefficient of the rock-fluid system were measured and computed to analyse the system’s thermodynamic performance. The findings show that on a lab scale, a higher flow rate results in higher thermodynamic efficiency but lower heat exchange effectiveness.