Research progress on temperature field evolution of hot reservoirs under low-temperature tailwater reinjection

This paper focuses on the study of the evolutionary mechanism governing the temperature field of geothermal reservoir under low-temperature tailwater reinjection conditions,which is crucial for the sustainable geothermal energy management.With advancing exploitation of geothermal resources deepens,precise understanding of this mechanism becomes paramount for devising effective reinjection strategies,optimizing reservoir utilization,and bolstering the economic viability of geothermal energy development.The article presents a comprehensive review of temperature field evolution across diverse heterogeneous thermal reservoirs under low-temperature tailwater reinjection conditions,and analyzes key factors influ-encing this evolution.It evaluates existing research methods,highlighting their strengths and limitations.The study identifies gaps in the application of rock seepage and heat transfer theories on a large scale,alongside the need for enhanced accuracy in field test results,particularly regarding computational effi-ciency of fractured thermal reservoir models under multi-well reinjection conditions.To address these shortcomings,the study proposes conducting large-scale rock seepage and heat transfer experiments,coupled with multi-tracer techniques for field testing,aimed at optimizing fractured thermal reservoir models'computational efficiency under multi-well reinjection conditions.Additionally,it suggests integrat-ing deep learning methods into research endeavors.These initiatives are of significance in deepening the understanding of the evolution process of the temperature field in deep thermal reservoirs and enhancing the sustainability of deep geothermal resource development.

Progress and prospect of mid-deep geothermal reinjection technology

Mid-deep geothermal reinjection technology is crucial for the sustainable development of geothermal resources,which has garnered significant attention and rapid growth in recent years.Currently,various geothermal reinjection technologies lag behind,lacking effective integration to address issues like low reinjection rates and thermal breakthrough.This paper reviews the basic principles and development history of mid-deep geothermal reinjection technology,focusing on various technical methods used in the process and analyzing their applicability,advantages,and disadvantages under different geological conditions.It highlights the unique challenges posed by deep geothermal resources,including high temperature,high pressure,high stress,chemical corrosion,and complex geological structures.Additionally,it addresses challenges in equipment selection and durability,system stability and operation safety,environmental impact,and sustainable development.Finally,the paper explores future directions for mid-deep geothermal reinjection technology,highlighting key areas for further research and potential pathways for technological innovation.This comprehensive analysis aims to accelerate the advancement of geothermal reinjection technology,offering essential guidance for the efficient reinjection and sustainable development of geothermal resources.

Study on the geothermal production and reinjection mode in Xiong County

The large karst geothermal field of Xiong County,which is located to the south of geothermal field in Niutuozhen,features huge geothermal resources and favorable condition for development and utilization.Because of the long-term extensive production,the pressure of geothermal reservoir continues to decline and some geothermal wells even face the danger of scrapping.To relieve the fall in pressure of geothermal reservoir and achieve the sustainable development and utilization of geothermal field in the long run,reinjection experiment is conducted in the geothermal field of Xiong County and a three-dimensional hydrothermal coupled numerical model was constructed.The reinjection experiment showed that the mode of one production well and one reinjection well can be achieved in this geothermal field.The numerical simulation is used to forecast and compare the change in pressure field and temperature field under different production and reinjection modes and concludes that the most opotimized production and utilization mode is the concentrated production-reinjection mode,and the most opotimized production-reinjection combination mode is the shallow production and shallow reinjection mode which can ensure the sustainable development and utilization of geothermal resources in the long run.

Formation blockage risk analysis of geothermal water reinjection:Rock property analysis,pumping and reinjection tests,and long-term reinjection prediction

The blockage induced by particle migration and deposition is one of the main reasons for the decrease of reinjection capacity in the porous geothermal reservoir with a low and medium temperature.In this paper,a new drilled geothermal well in Xining basin China is taken as an example to investigate the formation blockage risk due to the movable clay and sand particles in pores.The physical properties of the reservoir rocks were analyzed,a series of pumping and reinjection tests were conducted,and the longterm reinjection performance of the well was predicted by numerical simulation based on the test fitting.The results show that the geothermal reservoir rocks are argillaceous and weakly cemented sandstones with a content of movable clay and sand particles up to 0.18–23.42 wt.%.The well presented a high productivity of 935–2186 m3?d-1 at a pressure difference of 0.7–1.62 MPa in the pumping tests associated with a large amount of clay and sand particles produced out,while in the reinjection test,only a low injectivity of 240–480 m3?d-1 was observed at an injection pressure of 0.2–0.6 MPa with the clay and sand particles near the wellbore move into deep.According to the prediction,under conditions of a blockage risk,the injectivity of the well will start to decline after 100 days of injection,and in the third year,it will decrease by 59.00%–77.09%.The influence of invasion of pretreated suspended particles and scale particles can be neglected.Under conditions of a high blockage risk,the injectivity of the well will decrease significantly in the first 20–30 days,with a decline of 75.39%–78.96%.Generally,the higher the injection pressure or rate,the greater the decrease in injectivity of the well caused by particle blockage.Pump lifting is an effective measure to remove the well blockage which can be used regularly.

Clogging mechanism in the process of reinjection of used geothermal water: A simulation research on Xianyang No.2 reinjection well in a super-deep and porous geothermal reservoir

In the process of geothermal exploitation and utilization, the reinjection amount of used geothermal water in super-deep and porous reservoir is small and significantly decreases over time. This has been a worldwide problem, which greatly restricts the exploitation and utilization of geothermal resources. Based on a large amount of experiments and researches, the reinjection research on the tail water of Xianyang No.2 well, which is carried out by combining the application of hydrogeochemical simulation, clogging mechanism research and the reinjection experiment, has achieved breakthrough results. The clogging mechanism and indoor simulation experiment results show: Factors affecting the tail water reinjection of Xianyang No.2 well mainly include chemical clogging, suspended solids clogging, gas clogging, microbial clogging and composite clogging, yet the effect of particle migration on clogging has not been found; in the process of reinjection, chemical clogging was mainly caused by carbonates(mainly calcite), silicates(mainly chalcedony), and a small amount of iron minerals, and the clogging aggravated when the temperature rose; suspended solids clogging also aggravated when the temperature rose, which showed that particles formed by chemical reaction had a certain proportion in suspended solids.

Reinjection Tests in Bedrock Geothermal Reservoir of Tianjin

By the end of 2002, there are about 219 production wells (including 12 reinjection wells) in Tianjin. The annual production rate is 1.5×10 7 m 3 and the reinjection rate is 1.66×10 6 m 3. The main side effect anticipated from reinjection is the cooling of the reservoir. It is necessary to estimate the thermal breakthrough time in different distances between injection production wells. This paper describes the 2 D mass and heat transfer in the heterogeneous fractured rocks. The equations that arise for each grid block must be linearized. The main reinjection model is simulated by a program of the TOUGH2 to analyze the change of the temperature field and predict the pressure and heat break through. The tracer test is very important for understanding the transportation pathway and transport channel/space in the doublet system, and estimating the possible cooling resulted from the injection processes.

An Experimental Study on Bio-Clogging in Porous Media during Geothermal Water Reinjection

To study the mechanism of bio-clogging in a porous medium during the reinjection of geothermal water and to improve reinjection efficiency, an indoor one-dimensional reinjection experiment was conducted based on the geological model of the geothermal reinjection demonstration project in Dezhou City. The biological process of porous media clogging was investigated by analyzing the variation of permeability within the medium, the main indexes of nutrient salts, and the content of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). High-throughput sequencing, based on 16S rRNA, was used to analyze the characteristics and succession of microbial communities during the reinjection of geothermal water. The results of the study show that significant bio-clogging occurs during the reinjection of geothermal water, with an increase in the heterogeneity of the thermal reservoir medium, and a decrease in permeability. The extent of clogging gradually reduces with an increase in seepage path. Thus, thermal reservoir clogging is more serious closer to the water inlet. With an increase in the duration of reinjection, the permeability of the porous medium undergoes three stages: “rapid”, “decline-slow”, and “decrease-stable”. The results show that the richness and diversity of the bacterial community increase and decrease, respectively, during the reinjection process. Bacterial community succession occurs, and the bacterial communities mainly include the Proteobacteria and Bacteroidetes phyla. Pseudomonas and Devosia are respectively the dominant bacteria in the early and late stages of geothermal water reinjection.

A New Method for the Dynamic Reserves of Gas Condensate Reservoir Using Cyclic Gas Injection Based on the Effects of Reinjection Ratio and Water Influx

As we all know, cyclic gas injection is one of the most effective development methods to improve condensate oil recovery. When dealing with the calculation of the reserves, the injection-production differences and water influx create great influence on the accuracy. Based on the existing research, we proposed a new material balance equation which considered the differences of composition between produced and injected fluids and the effect of water influx, and a solution was provided in this paper. The results of the method are closer to the actual situation because they are built on the law of conservation of mass, and the using of curve fitting method can not only avoid the use of water influx coefficient but also obtain the water influx rate and reserves at the same time. The YH-23 gas condensate reservoir is taking as a typical subject to do the research, which has been exploited by cycle gas injection for 14 years. Three different methods are used to calculate the reserves, and the results show that the method proposed in this paper has minimum error of 2.96%.

Environmental benefits for a geothermal power plant with CO_(2) reinjection:case study of the Kizildere 3 U1 geothermal power plant

Geothermal power plants(GPP)with high non condensable gases(NCG)content geothermal fluid have shown to be environmental impacting relating to their energy production,which could be critical if no corrective actions are achieved.The GPP of Kizildere 3 U1,located in Türkiye(Denizli),in where the geothermal fluid contains high percentage of CO_(2),99%of the NCG fraction,which represents the 3%of the geothermal fluid mass,is taken as a relevant case study to implement a new innovation consisting of NCG reinjection to reduce the amount of NCGs released to the atmosphere.In order to calculate the present environmental impacts which the plant is causing(baseline);and the potential reduction of environmental impacts which can be achieved with the innovation(reinjection),a life cycle assessment(LCA)calculation were developed.Primary data were collected for all the relevant stages of the energy conversion cycle and complemented where necessary with secondary data from other geothermal power plants studies.The main results of the baseline environmental assessment show that the construction phase is the most impacting phase due to the materials used in the power plant building construction,electrical generation equipment and distributed machinery and infrastructures;the effects in the operation phase are dominated by the geothermal fluid composition.In this sense,the application of CO_(2) reinjection at the Turkish site into the reservoir will prevent the emission of 1,700 tons⋅year1 in the pilot site and 10%of the total emissions released along the life span of the GPP.

Influence of Leachate Recirculation on Landfill Degradation and Biogas Production

Population growth combined with the rising standard of living of people around the world is the reason for the ever-increasing production of waste which management is costing states a lot of money for its disposal. Among available waste treatment techniques, landfill is one of the most promoted waste management techniques with the emergence of the bioreactor concept. However, the control of biodegradation parameters in order to accelerate waste stabilization is an important issue. For environmental and economic reasons, the technique of leachate recirculation by injection into the waste is increasingly used to improve the degradation of landfilled waste. The injection of leachate is possible using vertical boreholes, horizontal pipes, infiltration ponds or a combination of these. Indeed, moisture is the main factor in waste degradation and biogas production. The migration of leachate to the bottom of the landfill creates low moisture in the upper areas of the landfill reducing the growth of microbial populations. This results in low or no biogas production. The main objective of the present work is to develop a numerical model of leachate recirculation by injection into the waste to rewet the waste and restart biological activity. The analysis of the results shows that the diffusion of the wet front increases with time and depth. The lateral widening of the wet front is slow in relation to the progression of the wet front towards the bottom of the waste cell. This indicates the predominance of gravity effects over diffusion phenomena. The results reveal that the distributed re-injection is the best mode of leachate recirculation because the moisture distribution on the whole waste mass is totally satisfactory and the biogas generation is more important. Leachate recirculation campaigns should be done periodically to rewet the waste, boost microbial activity and hope for a quicker stabilization of the landfill.

NUMERICAL SIMULATION STUDY ON WUQING GEOTHERMAL RESERVOIR,TIANJIN

In this paper the computer code of AUTOUGH2 is used to carry out numerical simulation study on the Wuqing geothermal reservoir for evaluating reservoir performance upon different exploitation schemes.The simulating calculation and analysis of two main cases,production without reinjection and production with reinjection,were carried out to illuminate and compare the temperature and pressure profiles with distance and time.The water level or pressure will decrease with the time of production,and the reinjection will cause the cooling effect of reinjection on the production zone.

A classification of induced seismicity

In order to adopt the best safety procedures, man-made earthquakes should be differentiated as a function of their origin. At least four different types of settings can be recognized in which anthropogenic activities may generate seismicity:(I) fluid removal from a stratigraphic reservoir in the underground can trigger the compaction of the voids and the collapse of the overlying volume, i.e., graviquakes; the deeper the reservoir, the bigger the volume and the earthquake magnitude;(II) wastewater or gas reinjection provides the reduction of friction in volumes and along fault planes, allowing creep or sudden activation of tectonic discontinuities, i.e., reinjection quakes;(III) fluid injection at supra-lithostatic pressure generates hydrofracturing and micro-seismicity, i.e., hydrofracturing quakes;(IV) fluid extraction or fluid injection,filling or unfilling of artificial lakes modifies the lithostatic load, which is the maximum principal stress in extensional tectonic settings, the minimum principal stress in contractional tectonic settings, and the intermediate principal stress in strike-slip settings, i.e., load quakes; over given pressure values, the increase of the lithostatic load may favour the activation of normal faults, whereas its decrease may favour thrust faults. For example, the filling of an artificial lake may generate normal fault-related seismicity.Therefore, each setting has its peculiarities and the knowledge of the different mechanisms may contribute to the adoption of the appropriate precautions in the various industrial activities.

Hydromechanical behaviors of andesite under different stress states during fluid injection

Water reinjection into the formation is an indispensable operation in many energy engineering practices.This operation involves a complex hydromechanical(HM)coupling process and sometimes even causes unpredictable disasters,such as induced seismicity.It is acknowledged that the relative magnitude and direction of the principal stresses significantly influence the HM behaviors of rocks during injection.However,due to the limitations of current testing techniques,it is still difficult to comprehensively conduct laboratory injection tests under various stress conditions,such as in triaxial extension stress states.To this end,a numerical study of HM changes in rocks during injection under different stress states is conducted.In this model,the saturated rock is first loaded to the target stress state under drainage conditions,and then the stress state is maintained and water is injected from the top to simulate the formation injection operation.Particular attention is given to the difference in HM changes under triaxial compression and extension stresses.This includes the differences in the pore pressure propagation,mean effective stress,volumetric strain,and stress-induced permeability.The numerical results demonstrate that the differential stress will significantly affect the HM behaviors of rocks,but the degree of influence is different under the two triaxial stress states.The HM changes caused by the triaxial compression stress states are generally greater than those of extension,but the differences decrease with increasing differential stress,indicating that the increase in the differential stress will weaken the impact of the stress state on the HM response.In addition,the shear failure potential of fracture planes with various inclination angles is analyzed and summarized under different stress states.It is recommended that engineers could design suitable injection schemes according to different tectonic stress fields versus fault occurrence to reduce the risk of injection-induced seismicity.

Seepage-heat transfer coupling process of low temperature return water injected into geothermal reservoir in carbonate rocks in Xian County,China

Fracture seepage and heat transfer in the geothermal reservoir of carbonate rocks after the reinjection of low temperature geothermal return water is a complex coupling process,which is also the frontier of geothermal production and reinjection research.Based on the research of cascade comprehensive development of geothermal resources in Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei(Xian County),the carbonate geothermal reservoir of Wumishan formation in the geothermal field in Xian County is investigated.With the development of the discrete fracture network model and the coupling model of seepage and heat transfer,the numerical solution of seepage field and temperature field with known fracture network is reached using the finite element software COMSOL,and the coupling process of seepage flow and heat in carbonate rocks is revealed.The results show that the distribution of temperature field of fractured rocks in geothermal reservoir of carbonate rocks has strong non-uniformity and anisotropy.The fracture network is interpenetrated,which constitutes the dominant channel of water conduction,and along which the fissure water moves rapidly.Under the influence of convective heat transfer and conductive heat transfer,one of the main factors to be considered in the study of thermal breakthrough is to make the cold front move forward rapidly.When the reinjection and production process continues for a long time and the temperature of the geothermal reservoir on the pumping side drops to a low level,the temperature of bedrocks is still relatively high and continues to supply heat to the fissure water,so that the temperature of the thermal reservoir on the pumping side will not decrease rapidly to the water temperature at the inlet of reinjection,but will gradually decrease after a long period of time,showing an obvious long tail effect.The distribution of fractures will affect the process of seepage and heat transfer in carbonate reservoirs,which should be considered in the study of fluid thermal coupling in carbonate reservoirs.

Modeling research in low-medium temperature geothermal field, Tianjin

The geothermal reservoir in Tianjin can be divided into two parts: the upper one is the porous medium reservoir in the Tertiary system; the lower one includes the basement reservoir in Lower Paleozoic and Middle-Upper Proterozoic. Hot springs are exposed in the northern mountain and confined geothermal water is imbedded in the southern plain. The geothermal reservoir is incised by several fractures. In recent years, TDS of the geothermal water have gone up along with the production rate increasing, along the eastern fracture zone (Cangdong Fracture and West Baitangkou Fracture). This means that the northern fracture system is the main seepage channel of the deep circulation geothermal water, and the reservoir has good connection in a certain area and definite direction. The isotopic research about hydrogen and carbon chronology indicates that the main recharge period of geothermal water is the Holocene Epoch, the pluvial and chilly period of 20 kaBP. The karst conduits in weathered carbonate rocks of the Proterozoic and Lower Paleozoic and the northeast regional fracture system are the main feeding channels of Tianjin geothermal water. Since the Holocene epoch, the geothermal water stayed at a sealed warm period. The tracer test in WR45 doublet system shows that the tracer test is a very effective measure for understanding the reservoir's transport nature and predicting the cooling time and transport velocity during the reinjection. 3-D numerical simulation shows that if the reinjection well keeps a suitable distance from the production well, reinjection will be a highly effective measure to extract more thermal energy from the rock matrix. The cooling of the production well will not be a problem.