Rittershoffen

The heat plant of Rittershoffen has been developed in order to supply Roquette Frères Company, a bio-refinery, with geothermal heat for their industrial processes. This industrial user, located in Beinheim, France, totals 100 MW_th of thermal needs. The geothermal heat plant, with an installed capacity of 24 MW_th, is then providing the totality of its heat production to this company via an isolated heating transport loop of 15 km length. The geothermal brine is produced at a temperature of 170°C from a production well, GRT-2 at 2700 m depth, penetrated into Triassic sedimentary layers and the top crystalline fractured basement interface. The geothermal brine is flowing through a system of twelve consecutive tubular heat exchangers and is fully reinjected without additional pumps at 80°C into one injection well, GRT-1, at 2500 m depth. The reinjection temperature is linked to the return temperature of the transport loop. The flow rate of the brine is regulated at 70-75 kg/s by a Downhole production Line Shaft Pump. The geothermal plant has been successfully producing heat since June 2016 under commercial conditions.