Tristan Leonard Merbecks
PhD thesis title: Design and operation of a binary ORC power plant for the exploitation of geothermal resources, including two-phase
Academic Tutor: Paolo Chiesa
Academic Supervisor: Paola Bombarda, Martin Saar, Paolo Silva and Dario Alfani
Industrial Supervisor: Joseph Bonafin (Turboden S.p.a.) and Claudio Pietra (Turboden S.p.a.)
PhD cycle: 36° (see all student profiles of the same cycle > LINK)
BSc: Chemical Engineering, University of Bath
MSc: Chemical Engineering, University of Bath
For my first secondment, I spent a year in the Geothermal Energy and Geofluids (GEG) research group headed by Prof. Martin Saar at the ETH Zurich in Switzerland, where I developed a thermophysical property model for modelling geothermal brines / For my second secondment, I will spend three months with Turboden S.p.A in Brescia, where I will gain insights into the design or ORC power plants and apply the previously developed Thermophysical Property Model to real-life fluids.
Thesis abstract
I am investigating the application envelope of organic rankine cycle power plants for the exploitation of geothermal resources, and specifically whether they can compete with traditional flash power plants used for medium to high enthalpy resources.
Personal interest in my research theme
Having previously worked in the upstream oil and gas industry, this PhD project seemed like the ideal transition into renewable energy generation while getting to use my existing skill set.
