Geothermal Power & Aquathermal Power Sustainable and climate-neutral heating and cooling systems
Base load capable, reliable, locally available, and weather-independent.
Geothermal power and the thermal use of surface water and wastewater are making an important contribution to the transition to renewable energy and sustainable energy supply. We work with you to shape the future of renewable energies with our comprehensive and tried-and-tested systems, components, and services in heat transfer, cooling, and filtration. HYDAC—on hand to help worldwide.
Your contact for geothermal power and aquathermal power applications
Drilling equipment & feed pumps
Deep drilling equipment for the exploration and subsequent utilization of geothermal energy deposits requires efficient and robust hydraulic systems. The cooling system also plays an important role for drive motors, frequency converters, and bearings—the focus here is primarily on the energy-efficient operation of the electrical components. Thousands of meters below the earth's surface, micro-hydraulic pumps from BIERI (part of the HYDAC group of companies) enable the hydraulic control of drill heads. This is known as directional drilling.
Heat transfer & extraction
The efficient transfer of thermal energy from surface water, waste water, or geothermal energy to an operating fluid requires high-performance heat exchangers. Gasketed plate heat exchangers or shell-and-tube heat exchangers from FUNKE (part of the HYDAC group of companies) make the energy ready for use for cooling or district and local heating. To protect the heat exchangers and other system components, upstream filtration is advisable—it ensures high availability and prevents unplanned service calls.
Large heat pumps & high-temperature heat pumps
These are special heat pumps that can generate high flow temperatures even from heat sources with lower temperatures, for heating systems or process water, for example. Compressors and expansion turbines require a reliable lubrication oil supply. The optimized lubricating oil tank design from HYDAC ensures a long service life and safe operation, helping you to minimize your heat pump's CO2footprint.
ORC plants
Organic Rankine Cycle plants are designed in a similar way to conventional power stations for generating electricity. One of the main differences is the fluid used. Instead of water, organic liquids are used that evaporate even at low temperatures.
All components of the rotating equipment (generator, turbine, compressor) require heat exchangers, gas filters, and droplet separators as well as hydraulic oil and lubricating oil systems. The air-liquid heat exchangers for the condensers must also work efficiently and quietly—HYDAC offers you all these solutions from a single source.
Safety & efficiency
To operate geothermal power plants and plants for thermal surface water utilization economically, a constant flow rate of the "energy producing" water and a low pressure loss of the installed components are essential. Thermal water tends to crystallize previously dissolved substances, however, and surface and wastewater also contains contamination particles. This can lead to a reduction in the heat transfer efficiency of heat exchangers due to fouling / scaling. The consequences: Additional downtime and time-consuming cleaning and maintenance work.
To avoid these economic consequences, HYDAC makes maintenance easy for you. We have developed specialized filter technologies with low differential pressures that withstand heat and contamination without the need for constant filter changes. This allows you to stabilize your processes and effortlessly achieve a constant flow rate.
How can you protect your heat exchangers from blocking? Contact us for more information!
Safety & efficiency in geothermal power & aquathermal power: Our product solutions
HYDAC automatic filters AutoFilt®
Our self-cleaning automatic filters protect heat exchangers, pumps, and other components in surface water utilization, deep geothermal energy or near-surface geothermal energy with filtration ratings of 25 to 3000 µm. They also reduce contamination in water-to-water heat pumps when heating and cooling building technology. Thanks to their flexible design, our automatic filters are ideal for retrofitting in existing systems.
HYDAC inline filters & screen basket filters
Our screen basket filters are used for coarse filtration or pre-filtration of surface water, thermal water, and cooling water. Thanks to the robust filter materials, they are designed for long-term operation and achieve filtration ratings of 25 to 10,000 µm. They are also available as change-over duplex filters.
HYDAC filter skids
Are you looking for a custom solution? Then our filter skids are just what you need. We develop tailor-made systems for water treatment, leaving nothing to be desired. Whether it's a combination of coarse and fine filters, a skid solution for high flow rates, or a combination of a heat exchanger, filter, and pump—get in touch.
HYDAC microaxial piston pumps
In geothermal power plants, pumps are exposed to the most adverse conditions. As part of the HYDAC group of companies, BIERI has developed compact axial units with high volumetric efficiency and a wide speed range. Equipped with two to five pistons, we offer microaxial piston pumps for various applications.
Energy efficiency
The efficiency of the heat exchangers used has a direct impact on the performance of the entire system. Heat exchangers must therefore be carefully matched to the pressures, salt content, minerality, and solid contamination of the thermal or surface water. Both the design of the heat exchanger and its internal flow conditions have an impact on efficiency. If the heat exchanger is not optimized, you can expect downtimes due to fouling, scaling, suspended particles, or damage to the appliance.
Together with FUNKE, we offer highly specialized solutions, such as especially efficient gasketed plate heat exchangers that enable high heat outputs even with a low driving temperature difference (LMTD). If your required design pressures or temperatures are too high for plate heat exchangers, we enable significantly higher mechanical and thermal design conditions with shell-and-tube heat exchangers.
Efficiency in geothermal power & aquathermal power: Our product solutions
HYDAC plate heat exchangers
We calculate and optimize the gasketed (screwed) plate heat exchangers according to your performance, temperature, and pressure loss specifications. You can choose from different plate materials to suit your individual requirements. When combined with the compact design, easy cleaning, and low investment costs, this results in the perfect solution for efficient heat transfer.
HYDAC shell-and-tube heat exchangers
As heat exchangers in geothermal power plants or as evaporators in ORC/Kalina systems—our shell-and-tube heat exchangers work reliably even with critical media and very high operating pressures and temperatures. Thanks to an optimized flow design, we also reduce the tendency to fouling, which leads to more stable processes.
Thermal management
For electrical components in aquathermal and geothermal systems, a continuous temperature without large fluctuations, i.e. thermal management, is of great importance.
Our large portfolio of cooling systems for drive motor and bearing cooling, but also for frequency inverters, provides the cooling medium's "feel-good temperature" for the electrical components.
Find the right cooling system—our experts
will provide you with comprehensive advice
Thermal management in geothermal power & aquathermal power: Our product solutions
HYDAC fluid-air cooling system
The HYDAC FLKS takes care of the drive and bearing cooling in electrical components (e.g. feed pumps). As a compact solution, it generates cold water to ensure efficient fluid cooling, with recooling via the ambient air. It's also easy to install and especially low-maintenance.
HYDAC fluid-water cooling system
The FWKS is used in the intermediate circuit for drive and bearing cooling. There, the system protects against contamination and corrosion of the components caused by insufficient quality of the available cold water. The compact, low-maintenance design makes the FWKS a tried-and-tested solution.
HYDAC water-glycol circuit
Our modular system for circulating water glycol is used to cool the generator, inverter, bearing, or control oil in geothermal power plants. As an option, we can also equip this system with a redundant motor-pump group for greater safety or a mixing valve to optimize the temperature of the cooling medium.
HYDAC air coolers
Our standard air cooler isn't just used to cool lubricating oil or hydraulic oil. It's also used as an air heater. It operates particularly quietly with a cooling capacity of up to 200 kW—also available with an optional pump and filter.
HYDAC modular air cooler series
The compact and low-noise coolers in the AC-MS series are the perfect choice for ORC or Kalina systems. Whenever a very high cooling capacity is required in a limited space or with low noise levels, they are used as table coolers, vertically or in what is described as a V shape.
Sustainability & CO₂ reduction
Whether it's near-surface geothermal power, deep geothermal power, or aquathermal power—each application makes an important contribution to converting and utilizing existing thermal energy. The processes in the power plants themselves can also be made more energy efficient, however, so that the CO2footprint is reduced. At HYDAC, we rely on space-optimized concepts in lubrication oil tanks, for example. Smaller tanks mean less oil and therefore reduced use of resources. Optimized filtration also creates many opportunities to save on filter elements, however.
Find out how you can minimize the CO2 footprint of your system.
Contact us now
Sustainability & CO₂ reduction in geothermal power & aquathermal power: Our product solutions
HYDAC bearing lubrication systems
HYDAC is your partner for the smooth operation of compressors, rotating equipment for ORC or Kalina systems, and high-performance heat pumps. Benefit from our extensive range of standardized and modular bearing lubrication systems, including patented degassing technology for lubricants.
HYDAC Air-X filter technology
Reduce the size of your tank by up to 40 %—and reduce oil consumption and material costs. Thanks to an optimized flow ratio, high air separation rates can be achieved when the oil returns to the tank. We optimize and reduce the size of your tank without requiring additional space on or next to the tank.
HYDAC Mobilemicron® filter elements
The Mobilemicron®filter elements are suitable for high-viscosity oil due to their particularly low pressure loss behavior. They cover a temperature range from -30 °C to 100 °C and are particularly suitable for low temperatures during a cold start, as found in geothermal energy. The flow is from the outside to the inside with a cracking pressure bypass of 3 bar.
HYDAC filter elements against electrostatic discharge Stat-X®
Modern, low-conductivity oils lead to electrostatic charging and discharging in hydraulic and lubrication oil systems. The resulting electrostatic phenomena during filtration cause damage to filters and components in the system as well as premature oil degradation. With the use of special Stat-X®technology, dangerous charges and discharges in the system can be avoided.
HYDAC Fluid Care Portal
Is your oil presenting you with unsolved mysteries? We can help you with the Fluid Care Portal—our centralized platform for managing fluid-based devices and systems. Here we provide you with digital transmission of measured values, comprehensive oil analyses, and qualified advice from our experts.
System availability
To generate thermal energy from water and geothermal energy, the power plants must operate efficiently and require little maintenance. This is the only way to ensure high productivity and therefore high economic efficiency. Optimized fluid maintenance is an important building block for success, as it is often avoidable minor issues that bring a system to a standstill. To prevent this, it's advisable to use dewatering and fluid maintenance systems as well as smart sensors in deep geothermal power, near-surface geothermal power, and aquathermal power. This makes it possible to use condition monitoring and predictive maintenance to intervene at an early stage and plan maintenance work sensibly.
System availability in geothermal power & aquathermal power: Our product solutions
HYDAC Mobile Filtration Unit
Our portable service unit is designed to fill hydraulic systems safely, flush small hydraulic systems, and clean in bypass flow. The result is improved component, oil, and system filter service lives. This leads to fewer service calls and increases machine availability. The compact design paired with easy operation makes it a timesaver and simple to use.
HYDAC offline filter unit
To maintain hydraulic and lubrication systems with large quantities of oil in geothermal power plants or large heat pumps, we offer robust offline units for stationary use. Equipped with a high element contamination retention capacity and optional sensors for oil condition monitoring, you can achieve longer oil change intervals with the OLF.
HYDAC Contamination Sensor Module
Would you like to measure the solid contamination and water saturation in your oil-hydraulic systems? Our compact and cost-effective condition monitoring module is able to help with this. No more surprises—with the module, you always have an overview of your systems and can intervene at an early stage.
HYDAC IO-Link & smart sensors
HYDAC offers a wide range of sensors in the context of Industry 4.0. These include IO-Link and smart sensors that can do more than just measure. Benefit from valuable detailed information such as overload situations, process value statistics, temperature profiles, operating hours, and much more that help you to design modern condition monitoring solutions.
HYDAC dewatering systems
The efficient conditioning with our dewatering units means that you benefit from longer oil change intervals, reduced Life Cycle Costs, greater reliability, and increased system availability. Consistently ensure the quality of your hydraulic fluids—our modular system series with permanent moisture monitoring increases filter service lives and therefore your geothermal system's productivity.
HYDAC Varnish Elimination Units
Our user-friendly VEU modules effectively remove oil degradation products from mineral oils, providing a longer fluid service life for your lubrication oils and hydraulic oils. This process doesn't just guarantee greater system safety. It also reduces your costs. Find out more about our modular units.