GEOPRO - Understanding Geofluid Chemistry

The current potential for optimisation of existing geothermal operations in terms of efficiency, economics and minimum disruption to the environment, lies in all parts of the system — reservoir, wellhead and generation, and reinjection. The chemical and physical properties of the geothermal fluids are a key control factor, determining the heat-carrying potential for energy transfer over the life of the well. An enhanced understanding of the properties of these fluids is therefore important to optimise site developments and operation. Additionally, the future for exploration, prediction and utilisation of novel geothermal technologies – namely enhanced geothermal systems and supercritical resources – is intimately tied to understanding the physical and chemical properties of the reservoir fluids.

Project GEOPRO, funded by European Commission’s H2020 programme, is designed to generate targeted advances in the understanding and modelling of geofluid characteristics, to support geothermal users by:

• Supporting improved design efficiency – knowledge-based design of wellbore, pipework, heat exchangers;
• for optimal conversion of the primary energy into electrical power
• Enabling knowledge-based design activities for best control of the;constraining fluid phenomena (such as scale formation, outgassing, cavitation during changes in temperature and pressure), maximising uptime and operational effectiveness of the plant;
• Providing underpinning knowledge for the future exploration and exploitation of supercritical systems through improved “vectors to ore” arising from the ability to better use fluid chemistry to predict deep subterranean conditions.

The project kicked-off on 19^th-20^th November and will run for a period of 36 months.

GEOPRO Impacts

 The overall impact benefits will be enabled through:

• Optimized energy extraction from existing systems to remain within the production constraints of scaling, corrosion etc.
• Reduced OPEX costs through the ability to thermodynamically minimise scale formation at key points through control-oriented modelling
• The ability to better design well layouts, pipe dimensions, coatings using dynamic multi-phase geothermal flow assurance simulations coupled with a Knowledge Based Engineering (KBE) tool
• Improved knowledge of reservoir fluid characteristics
• Improving the ability to expand the reinjection technology of waste water and green-house gases like CO2, H2S and CH4 that are currently being emitted to the atmosphere

The Consortium

The GEOPRO consortium has a mix of partners including end user/geothermal power plant operators Zorlu (Turkey), OR Reykjavik Energy (Iceland) , Equinor (Norway) and Pfalzwerke geofuture GmbH (Germany), universities and research institutes TWI (UK), University of Iceland (Iceland), ETH (Switzerland), CNRS (France) University of Cologne (Germany) and NTNU (Norway), SMEs FPS (Norway) and TVS (UK).

Acknowledgement

This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 851816.