ANALYSIS OF THE HEAT TRANSFER TO HYDROCARBON MIXTURES FROM GEOTHERMAL BRINES USING A SIEVE TRAY COLUMN.

In order to design geothermal direct contact binary cycle power plants it is necessary to develop design tools to size the direct contactor. Of particular importance is the design of the working fluid preheater. For sieve tray columns a method is presented which has been successfully used when the working fluid is a pure fluid. It is shown here to be equally successful when applied to fluid mixtures. Further, it is shown that when changing the working fluid mixture that column internals must be changed to meet the demands of the new conditions.