Ground Water Use for Cooling: Associated Aquifer Temperature Changes

Abstract

In steam-electric power plants, large volumes of surface waters are used for cooling the plant's condensers. There, approximately two-thirds of the energy produced by the fuel is removed as waste heat. This heat is carried away by the cooling waters, is dispersed into the atmosphere or surface-water bodies, and is lost for other potential uses. When condenser cooling systems such as towers or ponds are used, there is also a considerable net loss of water through evaporation. Injection and storage of spent cooling waters underground would reduce the evaporative (consumptive) losses to the atmosphere. Later, these waters could be recovered for use in heating and in industrial or agricultural applications. The resulting conservation of energy and water may make such a project economically feasible in the near future as the costs of water and fuel increase. In this paper, we review the use of ground water from a confined aquifer for this application and analyze a simple configuration of one withdrawal and one injection well to determine: (1) the areal extent of temperature changes caused by reinjection of spent cooling waters into the aquifer from which they originated; and (2) how long it would take for the water to become too hot to use for cooling