Quantitative Approximation of Geothermal Potential of Bakreswar Geothermal Area in Eastern India

Proper utilization of geothermal energy for power generation is still overlooked in India even after having enough potential as much as the equivalent to its other nonconventional energy resources. The source of geothermal energy is the decay of the radio-nuclei present inside the Earth’s crust apart from the primordial heat source. The noble gas 4He is also produced during the radioactive disintegration process. Therefore, measuring the amount of 4He gas along with some other geochemical parameters in an Indian geothermal area, the potential of the reservoir can be evaluated. Mathematical calculations relating to the radioactive disintegration to estimate the geothermal potential of Bakreswar geothermal reservoir utilizing the concept of the 4He exploration technique has been described here. The study showed that the heat (radiogenic) energy generated by the radioactive decay of 232Th, 238U, and 235U inside the reservoir was evaluated as 38 MW. This value raises to 76 MW when primordial heat is included. The detail calculations suggest that a Kalina cycle based binary power plant using ammonia–water mixture as working fluid is supposed to be installed at the identified locations with a drilling depth of about 1,100 m and the plant would be capable of delivering the power of 9.88 MW to 40.26 MW

Preliminary studies of surface water quality in Damodar River basin (West Bengal, India)

The purpose of the research was to study the main parameters of the chemical composition of surface water and its quality in the Damodar River basin near the Durgapur city where the surface water is used for water supply of the local community. During fieldwork water of the Damodar River, its tributaries (Tamla River and small streams - receivers of industrial wastewater and drainage water) and the Maithon Reservoir was sampled from the layer 0.1-0.5 m. Preliminary studies have shown that the main pollutants in the study area are organic compounds, ammonium, phosphate and fluoride ions. Deterioration of water quality in some sampling points is connected with a low content of dissolved oxygen and high concentrations of nitrite, chloride and sulfate ions

Preliminary studies of surface water quality in Damodar River basin (West Bengal, India)

The purpose of the research was to study the main parameters of the chemical composition of surface water and its quality in the Damodar River basin near the Durgapur city where the surface water is used for water supply of the local community. During fieldwork water of the Damodar River, its tributaries (Tamla River and small streams - receivers of industrial wastewater and drainage water) and the Maithon Reservoir was sampled from the layer 0.1-0.5 m. Preliminary studies have shown that the main pollutants in the study area are organic compounds, ammonium, phosphate and fluoride ions. Deterioration of water quality in some sampling points is connected with a low content of dissolved oxygen and high concentrations of nitrite, chloride and sulfate ions

Imprints of nonlinearity in radioactive gas Radon-222 expelled out of Bakreswar hot spring, India

Nonlinear time series analysis of data related to the radioactivity profile of a hot spring area can explore the dynamics of the geothermal activities along with other different nonlinear features of the Earth system. However, not much work in this field has been done so far in India. In this paper nonlinear time series analysis of the radioactive gas Radon-222 (222Rn) (time series) data recorded at Bakreswar hot spring area of West Bengal, India during the period 2005-2010 was carried out to investigate the dynamics of the radioactive gas emanation process and its relation with the Earth’s tide. Power spectral density and the Hurst exponents were obtained for the above said time series signal using the nonlinear techniques of Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) and power law scaling relationship. An attempt was also made to understand the system dynamics using the surrogate and truncated data of the original time series as well. The result shows that the seasonal variations of the 222Rn emission from the hot spring is highly influenced by the Earth’s tidal effects, and the same has been confirmed by the power spectral density plot. The estimated Hurst exponent from log p-log f plot reflects the anti-persistent Brownian motion nature of the whole five years recorded data set