Reinjection in geothermal fields − A worldwide review update

Diaz, Alexandre Rivera; Kaya, Eylem; Zarrouk, Sadiq J.

doi:10.1016/j.rser.2015.07.151

Cited by 120 publications

(35 citation statements)

References 44 publications

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“…Even in geothermal sites with a vapor-dominated steam supply, the brine from its flash separation still contains a considerable amount of thermal energy [39]. However, this brine is usually not favorable for heat utilization or further flashing to generate power, because it is more concentrated with silica.…”

Section: The Wayang Windu Geothermal Brine Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermo-Economic Analysis of A Geothermal Binary Power Plant in Indonesia—A Pre-Feasibility Case Study of the Wayang Windu Site

2019

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Indonesia has a predicted geothermal potential of 29 GWe, which is the biggest in the world. With this potential, the government has the ambitious target to generate as much as 7 GWe of electricity in 2025 from geothermal energy. However, the installed capacity of geothermal power plant in Indonesia until 2019 is only 1.9 GWe. Enhancements in already-installed geothermal power plants with a binary power plant can be considered to achieve the 2025 target. In this research, a thermo-economic analysis is carried out to assess the feasibility of binary power systems to enhance the existing geothermal power plants in Indonesia. The Wayang Windu site is selected as the case study. Three working fluids, i.e., n-Pentane, isopentane, and R245fa, are compared. Two different optimization objectives are considered and compared. First, the thermal efficiency is optimized to maximize the thermodynamic performance. In the second scenario, the heat exchanger area is optimized to maximize the economic performance. Analysis of the economic profitability variables, namely the payback period and internal rate of return, shows that optimizing the heat exchangers gives better economic results when compared to optimizing the thermal efficiency. The results also show that the type of working fluid significantly affects both the thermal efficiency and economic profitability of the binary power plant. Moreover, n-Pentane has the most preferred thermo-economic performance for the geothermal conditions at Wayang Windu with the smallest payback period of 13 years and the highest internal rate of return of 11.28%.Keywords: thermodynamics; binary geothermal power plant; organic rank

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Section: The Wayang Windu Geothermal Brine Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Thermo-Economic Analysis of A Geothermal Binary Power Plant in Indonesia—A Pre-Feasibility Case Study of the Wayang Windu Site

2019

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“…This typical characteristic of fault zones thus increases the chance of good hydraulic connection between injection-and production wells and is potentially further improved by the often-observed fault-parallel fracture anisotropy within the damage zone (e.g., Bense et al, 2013;Caine et al, 1996;Faulkner et al, 2010;Shipton and Cowie, 2003). However, a number of critical studies exists (e.g., Bakhsh et al, 2016;Bauer et al, 2017;Bauer, 2018;Biemans, 2014;Diaz et al, 2016;Loveless et al, 2014) that discuss the risk and difficulties of exploring and exploiting fault zones as geothermal reservoirs. The two main concerns reported are that first a fault's architecture at reservoir depth is, due to the heterogeneous nature of rocks, and, in particular, that of faults, difficult to predict, i.e., exploration risk increases with complexity and heterogeneity of the envisaged reservoir (e.g., Bauer 2018;Bauer et al, 2018;Loveless et al, 2014).…”

Section: Faulted Reservoirsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A numerical sensitivity study of how permeability, geological structure, and hydraulic gradient control the lifetime of a geothermal reservoir

Bauer¹,

Krumbholz²,

Luijendijk³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Abstract. Geothermal energy is an important and sustainable resource that has more potential than is currently utilized. Whether or not a deep geothermal resource can be exploited, depends on, besides temperature, mostly the utilizable reservoir volume over time, which in turn largely depends on petrophysical parameters. We show, using a large series (n = 1027) of 4-dimensional finite element models of a simple geothermal doublet, that the lifetime of a reservoir is a complex function of its geological parameters, their heterogeneity, and the background hydraulic gradient (BHG). In our models, we test the effects of porosity, permeability, and BHG in an isotropic medium. Further, we simulate the effect of permeability contrast and anisotropy induced by layering, fractures, and a fault. We quantify the lifetime of the reservoir by measuring the time to thermal breakthrough, i.e., how many years pass before the 100 °C isotherm (HDI) reaches the production well. Our results attest to the positive effect of high porosity; however, high permeability and BHG can combine to outperform the former. Certain configurations of all the parameters can cause either early thermal breakthrough or extreme longevity of the reservoir. For example, the presence of high permeability fractures, e.g., in a fault damage zone, can provide initially high yields, but channels fluid flow and therefore dramatically restricts the exploitable reservoir volume. We demonstrate that the magnitude and orientation of the BHG, provided permeability is sufficiently high, are prime parameters that affect the lifetime of a reservoir. Our numerical experiments show also that BHGs (low and high) can be outperformed by comparatively small variations in permeability contrast (103) and fracture-induced permeability anisotropy (101) that thus strongly affect the performance of geothermal reservoirs.

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“…Several of these cases were observed in faulted reservoirs, where production and injection wells were placed within a highly permeable fault damage zone (e.g. Bödvarsson and Tsang, 1982;Diaz et al, 2016;Horne, 1982a, b;MacDonald et al, 1992;Ocampo et al, 1998;Parini et al, 1996;Tenma et al, 2008). These fault zone permeabilities are often highly variable, i.e.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A numerical sensitivity study of how permeability, porosity, geological structure, and hydraulic gradient control the lifetime of a geothermal reservoir

Bauer

Krumbholz

Luijendijk³

et al. 2019

Solid Earth

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Abstract. Geothermal energy is an important and sustainable resource that has more potential than is currently utilized. Whether or not a deep geothermal resource can be exploited, mostly depends on, besides temperature, the utilizable reservoir volume over time, which in turn largely depends on petrophysical parameters. We show, using over 1000 (n=1027) 4-D finite-element models of a simple geothermal doublet, that the lifetime of a reservoir is a complex function of its geological parameters, their heterogeneity, and the background hydraulic gradient (BHG). In our models, we test the effects of porosity, permeability, and BHG in an isotropic medium. Furthermore, we simulate the effect of permeability contrast and anisotropy induced by layering, fractures, and a fault. We quantify the lifetime of the reservoir by measuring the time to thermal breakthrough, i.e. how many years pass before the temperature of the produced fluid falls below the 100 ∘C threshold. The results of our sensitivity study attest to the positive effect of high porosity; however, high permeability and BHG can combine to outperform the former. Particular configurations of all the parameters can cause either early thermal breakthrough or extreme longevity of the reservoir. For example, the presence of high-permeability fractures, e.g. in a fault damage zone, can provide initially high yields, but it channels fluid flow and therefore dramatically restricts the exploitable reservoir volume. We demonstrate that the magnitude and orientation of the BHG, provided permeability is sufficiently high, are the prime parameters that affect the lifetime of a reservoir. Our numerical experiments show also that BHGs (low and high) can be outperformed by comparatively small variations in permeability contrast (103) and fracture-induced permeability anisotropy (101) that thus strongly affect the performance of geothermal reservoirs.

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Reinjection in geothermal fields − A worldwide review update

Cited by 120 publications

References 44 publications

Thermo-Economic Analysis of A Geothermal Binary Power Plant in Indonesia—A Pre-Feasibility Case Study of the Wayang Windu Site

Thermo-Economic Analysis of A Geothermal Binary Power Plant in Indonesia—A Pre-Feasibility Case Study of the Wayang Windu Site

A numerical sensitivity study of how permeability, geological structure, and hydraulic gradient control the lifetime of a geothermal reservoir

A numerical sensitivity study of how permeability, porosity, geological structure, and hydraulic gradient control the lifetime of a geothermal reservoir

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