Industrial use of the high-temperature geothermal field at Theistareykir, Iceland

The Theistareykir high-temperature geothermal field is located in the region Thingeyjarsýsla about 32 km from the coast and its principal town, Húsavík in northern Iceland. The paper shows that geothermal steam from the Theistareykir field can be piped to an industrial area close to Húsavík having a temperature of 170°C – 180°C at a cost of approximately US$ 4 per tonne while a steam cost of US$ 10 a tonne is quite common in steam consuming industries.The production of alumina is used as an illustration of the possible industrial use of geothermal steam. It is probable that the requirements for aluminium smelter capacity in Iceland may exceed 500,000 tonnes per annum within a decade. One million tonnes of alumina would be needed to achieve this annual aluminium production rate.