EFE-7 & EFE-2 Geothermal Power Plants — Turnkey Fire Protection

Geothermal energy is clean and renewable — but at the heart of the production process there is often a highly flammable liquid: pentane. At Güriş Holding’s EFE-7 and EFE-2 geothermal power plants in Aydın, A-Pro Engineering installed a turnkey fire protection system, electro-mechanically, centred on this critical risk.

The Source of the Risk: Pentane as the Working Fluid

Many geothermal plants use a secondary (binary/ORC) cycle to convert underground heat into electricity. The fluid of this cycle is often a hydrocarbon such as pentane — a low-boiling-point, highly flammable liquid:

• Pentane is stored in large volumes in tanks and circulates through pipework.
• A leak or a nearby fire can turn into a rapidly flashing vapour cloud.
• The most dangerous scenario is a heated tank exploding as pressure rises — a BLEVE.

For this reason, protecting the pentane tanks sits at the centre of the plant’s fire protection.

Pentane-Tank Spray Cooling (NFPA 15)

The pentane tanks were protected against overheating in a nearby fire with a water spray (spray cooling) system:

• The system continuously and evenly cools the tank and equipment surface with fine water droplets.
• The goal is to prevent the tank wall from reaching a critical temperature and exploding as pressure rises (BLEVE).
• The design was sized to the reference standard NFPA 15, covering the whole protected surface at an adequate flow rate.

Hydrant Lines and Cabinet Systems

The fixed cooling systems are complemented by infrastructure supporting manual and firefighter intervention across the site:

• Fire hydrant lines — reliable water access across the site.
• Fire hose-cabinet lines — ready equipment for point first response.

The Heart of the System: The Fire Pump Room

For all these systems — spray cooling, hydrants and cabinets — to draw water at the required pressure and flow depends on a reliable fire pump room. At the plants, the pump room was built to house the main and standby pumps, the jockey pump and the control infrastructure, ensuring the system delivers water at the most critical moment.

Turnkey Electro-Mechanical Delivery

A-Pro Engineering carried the project from a single source at both plants:

1. Engineering design — pentane-tank protection design, spray flow, hydrant and pump calculations.
2. Procurement — spray nozzles and valves, hydrant equipment, cabinets, fire pumps.
3. Electro-mechanical works — water pipework, support systems, pump room connections, wiring.
4. Installation — nozzle, hydrant, cabinet and pump installation.
5. Testing and commissioning — pressure, flow and functional tests.

Outcome

The EFE-7 and EFE-2 geothermal power plants were secured with a turnkey fire protection system centred on the specific risk of flammable pentane — including spray cooling, hydrants and the pump room. The project reflects A-Pro Engineering’s experience reading process risk correctly in fire protection at power-plant scale.