Puna Geothermal Fined for Violation

[Punatic007]

quote:

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Originally posted by RJ Hampton

Everyone wrap your minds around this.
The Iceland Deep Drilling Project, while drilling several 5000m holes in an attempt to harness the heat in the volcanic bedrock below the surface of Iceland, struck a pocket of magma at 2,100m. Being only the third time in recorded history that magma had been reached, IDDP decided to invest in the hole, naming it IDDP-1. This you can see is 2009

So if they were the third who were the other two that would be the next logical question right? No better yet who was the first right?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/a...ident.html

§13-183-54 General terms. (a) The operator under a lease
shall conduct all operations in a manner that conforms to the
most prudent practices and engineering principles in use in the
industry. Operations shall be conducted in a manner that
protects the natural resources including without limitation,
geothermal resources, and to obtain efficiently the maximum
ultimate recovery of geothermal resources, consistent with other
uses of the land with minimal impact on the environment.
Operations shall be conducted with due regard for the safety and
health of employees.

The operator shall promptly remove from the
leased lands or store, in an orderly manner, all scraps or other
materials not in use and shall notify the chairperson of all
accidents within twenty-four hours and submit a written report
within thirty days.

Was this done? That's a good question. And if so can we see it?

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Good find. Amazing the amount of corruption involving PGV. More fines and a permanent shut down hopefully.

[geochem]

quote:

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Originally posted by Punatic007

[quote]Originally posted by RJ Hampton


Good find. Amazing the amount of corruption involving PGV. More fines and a permanent shut down hopefully.

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Where's the corruption? The find was the subject of a special session at that American Geophysical Union Fall meeting several years ago - widely reported in the media and drill cuttings samples distributed to several research laboratories and at least a couple of scientific papers published. What's the big deal?

[geochem]

quote:

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Originally posted by Mendo

Curious how often H2S is described by geo apologists in terms of nuisance, such as "toxic gas that irritates the eyes, nose, and throat and has a rotten egg odor," while omitting the tiny fact that it's deadly poisonous.

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Not unlike such things as aspirin, or caffeine, or table salt, or every medical compound known to man that is therapeutic at one dose and toxic at another. "The dose makes the poison" for pretty much everything that you consume or come in contact with.

[ironyak]

Originally posted by geochem
There appears to have been a typo - or at the very least, a numbers-conflict in the 200 tons per day you cite.

One last time - the daily 200 tonnes (metric tons) of SO2 released in the East Rift Zone is in the HVO Kilauea Status update every day and is not a typo.

http://hvo.wr.usgs.gov/activity/kilaueastatus.php
"Pu'u 'O'o Observations: ... The most recent measurement of sulfur dioxide emissions from all East Rift Zone vents was about 200 tonnes per day on January 7."

PGV is also in the East Rift Zone, hence why ERZ emissions values are of use if trying to identify potential sources of gases in the area. Why the unbending focus on the summit values?


Summit Observations: "The emission rate of sulfur dioxide ranged from around 4,500 to 7,600 tonnes/day during the week ending January 13." Clearly a much higher number than 200 tons per day you cite - and I understood that it was about a 50/50 split between the summit and ERZ sources.

And this understanding of a "50/50 split between summit and ERZ sources" comes from where?


I looked at that Volcano Watch you noted and the claims there don’t match the known chemistry of H2S and SO2 - which can quite happily coexist for days at a time together... The other volcano watch article you noted is equally off base with the chemistry of the eruptive and geothermal emissions (natural and man-made).

These appear to be a bold statements that HVO / USGS don't know their business. Do you really think they all missed first semester Organic Chemistry and the Claus reaction? Perhaps consider that the the sulphur chemistry of volcanic gases is complex, much more so than a controlled industrial reaction.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.10...017246/pdf
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.10...027730/pdf

You are right in that temperature and pressure play a role in the ratio of SO2 / H2S but why you disregard the role of hydrothermal fluids, as found in ERZ geothermal areas and mentioned in these same articles, is unclear.


It is known that these two gases [SO2, H2S] rapidly react together in the presence of liquid water – and it’s likely that this reaction will consume some of the H2S present in the eruptive gases in a condensing plume but, to my knowledge, no one has actually made the effort to determine what fraction is lost to that process.

http://volcanoes.usgs.gov/hazards/gas/
Examples of volcanic gas compositions, in volume percent concentrations (from Symonds et. al., 1994)

Kilauea Summit
H2O: 37.1%
CO2: 48.9%
SO2: 11.8%
H2: 0.49%
CO: 1.51%
H2S: 0.04%
HCl 0.08

No sure where you got your 5% H2S value mentioned earlier. Unless you can offer a more credible source for your information, I will continue to defer to the expertise of HVO / USGS on these matters.

Once more: SO2 (and its summit or ERZ totals) is not the same chemical as H2S that PGV was fined for.
H2S emissions at Kilauea summit vents are quickly decomposed as opposed to natural geothermal areas found in the East Rift Zone where H2S is the dominate sulfur gas.

Can we move on?

[RJHampton]

http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/...in-iceland

The Iceland Deep Drilling Project, while drilling several 5000m holes in an attempt to harness the heat in the volcanic bedrock below the surface of Iceland, struck a pocket of magma at 2,100m. Being only the third time in recorded history that magma had been reached, IDDP decided to invest in the hole, naming it IDDP-1.
A cemented steel case was constructed in the hole with a perforation at the bottom close to the magma. The high temperatures and pressure of the magma steam were used to generate 36MW of power, making IDDP-1 the world’s first magma-enhanced geothermal system.

Want one here?

What's the big deal?
Was the discovery of uranium good for the planet?
Was splitting the atom a good idea.

Pull up to the Periodic Table cause now they can fill in the rest of the chart.


Reason this in the 10 years since the serendipitous discovery here in Puna. The developers operating on this side of the world have a new heat source, magma. They developed a magma-enhanced geothermal system.

Is magma a geothermal resource? Find it in the law.
Is there a difference you bet there is.

http://articles.latimes.com/1991-06-15/n...al-venture

[leilanidude]

@RJ Hampton - What is your point? Do we "want one here" ? The Iceland plant isn't pumping magma out of the ground and they wouldn't be doing so here, either.

[snorkle]

RJ;
You OK? Just wanted to make sure after you were hauled out of the Geothermal meeting by the police last night.

[Lodestone]

quote:

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Originally posted by leilanidude

@RJ Hampton - What is your point? Do we "want one here" ? The Iceland plant isn't pumping magma out of the ground and they wouldn't be doing so here, either.

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Right. And comparing it to nuclear is disingenuous. From an environmentalist's standpoint, it's certainly preferable to nuclear, coal, oil, natural gas, and hydro, no?

[Punatic007]

What is this....the geothermal employee chat room? Who else promotes heavy industry in the middle of a residential area?

[leilanidude]

quote:

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Originally posted by Punatic007

What is this....the geothermal employee chat room? Who else promotes heavy industry in the middle of a residential area?

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The land is zoned AG, and I am not "promoting" geothermal although I prefer it to this island's continuous use of oil which brings an extreme danger to our coastlines. When you build near an airport, do you also complain about the noise?

* Cue up kalakoa for insight on why your argument just doesn't hold up. []