152 Geothermal Power Plants: Principles, Applications, Case Studies and Environmental Impact

8.1 Introduction
Binary cycle geothermal power plants are the closest in thermodynamic principle to
conventional fossil or nuclear plants in that the working fluid undergoes an actual
closed cycle. The working fluid, chosen for its appropriate thermodynamic properties,
receives heat from the geofluid, evaporates, expands through a prime-mover, con-
denses, and is returned to the evaporator by means of a feed pump.
Although it is generally believed that the first geothermal binary power plant was
put into operation at Paratunka near the city of Petropavlovsk on Russia’s Kamchatka
peninsula in 1967 [1], there is evidence that an earlier binary plant existed in the
Democratic Republic of the Congo in Africa. A small 200 kW binary unit was installed
in 1952 at Kiabukwa about 18 km west of the city of Kamina in southern Katanga
province; see Fig. 8.0 [1a]. The site is some 300 km west of the East African Rift
System [1b]. Hot water at a temperature of 91
C and a flow rate of 40 kg/s from
a geothermal spring in the Upemba graben fed the plant. During its few years of opera-
tion, it supplied power to a mining company in the north of Katanga province [1c].
However, owing to lack of maintenance, the plant fell into disuse, was vandalized, and
today no trace remains of it [1d]. Other than the brief description and photo in
Ref. [1a], there is scant mention of the plant in the literature. There is interest in rede-
veloping the site.
The Paratunka plant in Russia was rated at 670 kW and served a small village and
some farms with both electricity and heat for use in greenhouses. It ran successfully
for many years, proving the concept of binary plants as we know them today.
At the birth of the commercial geothermal power age in 1912 at Larderello, Italy,
a so-called “indirect cycle” was adopted for a 250 kW plant; this was in effect a “binary”

Fig. 8.0 Geothermal binary plant at Kiabukwa, Democratic Republic of the Congo (best available copy) [1a].