Messrs. URACA GmbH & Co. KG is delivering the injection pump for the most recent geothermal drilling project of Messrs. geox GmbH, Landau/Palatinate. The Managing Director of the main contractor BESTEC GmbH, Dr Jörg Baumgärtner (drilling and thermal water circulation) visited URACA during the test run.

The machine has outstanding performance data and was especially designed for this job.  At a power rating of over 550 kW, ground water of approx. 4.800 l/min can be re-injected into the earth against a pressure of up to 80 bar. The decisive criterion for selecting a plunger pump with the above performance data is the excellent volumetric efficiency rate of these machines. In addition, the robust and proven URACA design was an important decision criterion, too. Most convincing is the quiet running of the quintuplex plunger pump under load, whereby a coin can be placed in an upright position on the pump’s liquid end without moving.

The pump was designed for the geothermal drilling project in Landau/Palatinate using hot ground water for power generation and local heating. The hot ground water is brought to the surface via a borehole from a depth of 3000 m. The primary energy is to generate electricity, whereas the residual heat is used for local heating of approx. 300 households. The cooled thermal water is then pumped back underground via a second borehole.

Start-up of the power plant is scheduled for October 2007, generating electric power of approx. 3 MW and a thermal rating of approx. 8 MW from alternative, environmentally friendly geothermal energy. The operating company is Messrs. geox GmbH, a joint venture of Messrs. Pfalzwerke and Energie-Südwest. The project is supported by research funds from the Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety.

The pump manufacturer URACA is engaged in this future-orientated project in the field of ecological energy production, as previoiusly for the trial drilling project in Bad Urach.