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This excel file provides direct use geothermal data for various wells located in Oregon. Data includes well name, location, heating application, temperature and flow of fluid, capacity, energy use, and load factor. The data is from the State of Oregon Department of Geology and Mineral Industries (linked below), where additional data downloads and metadata may be found.
The goal of this project was to demonstrate controlled fracturing and permeability increase to enhance resource production and power generation at Coso. It was planned to stimulate at least two intervals in the Well 73-18RD with zonal isolation using advanced high-temperature packer technology. The anticipation was that a hydraulic fracture would form in one zone and in the second zone natural fractures would reopen, shear and extend, thereby increasing fluid communication in the field. In both cases, the intent was to carefully design the stimulation to take advantage of the relative roles of hydraulic pressure, thermal stress and chemical (“hydro-thermo-chemical”) dissolution. The project had planned to use the Welltec Annular Barrier (WAB) system developed as part of another DOE-funded project which was on schedule to be ready for field deployment. If successful, the Coso Operating Company would incorporate this approach into their ongoing well maintenance in other wells increasing the total MWs produced. The project had multiple tasks and the objective of Task 1 was to develop a workover plan, to build a geologic model, to design a stimulation program, and to work with the operating and services companies to develop a detailed budget and obtain the necessary permits and sundry notices. In Phase 2 the workover plan would be implemented, the designed stimulation would be carried out, and subsequently the well would logged and tested to measure the impact of stimulation. Per sponsor request, a Pre-Task 1 activity with a Go/No Go decision point was scheduled in Task 1.
This study assessed the possibility of using polymethylhydrosiloxane (PMHS)-treated fly ash cenospheres (FCS) for formulating a thermally insulating and thermal shock (TS)-resistant cementitious blend with calcium aluminate cement. To prevent FCS degradation in an alkaline cement environment at high temperatures, the cenospheres were pre-treated with sodium metasilicate to form silanol and aluminol groups on their surface. These groups participated in a dehydrogenation reaction with the functional ≡Si–H groups within PMHS with the formation of siloxane oxygen-linked M-FCS (M: Al or Si). At high hydrothermal temperatures of 175 and 250 °C, some Si–O–Si and SiCH 3 bonds ruptured, causing depolymerization of the polymer at the FCS surface and hydroxylation of the raptured sites with the formation of silanol groups. Repolymerization through self-condensation between the silanol groups followed, resulting in the transformation of siloxane to low crosslinked silicon-like polymer as a repolymerization-induced product (RIP) without carbon. The RIP provided adequate protection of FCS from pozzolanic reactions (PR), which was confirmed by the decline in zeolites as the products of PR of FCS. Cements with PMHS-treated FCS withstood both hydrothermal and thermal temperature of 250 °C in TS tests, and they also showed improved compressive strength, toughness, and water repellency as well as decreased thermal conductivity. The lubricating properties of PMHS increased the fluidity of lightweight slurries.
Conventional cements and plugs are challenged by corrosion in CO 2 -rich and extreme geothermal environments, due to the hostile chemistry and high temperatures. Thermite-based sealing and well intervention technologies are being applied in the oil and gas industry, combining the energy delivery capability of thermite materials with the sealing characteristics of low melt temperature alloys. The thermite reaction products (ceramics) and the sealing alloys used in these plugs both have very attractive corrosion properties, and their operating envelopes extend into geothermal conditions. Thermite plugs and platforms, without supplemental sealing materials, have been considered for nuclear waste isolation, carbon sequestration, and geothermal applications due to the geochemical stability of the ceramic product and its very high service temperature. This study addresses corrosion resistance of the thermite reaction products. A range of engineered thermite systems which yield thermite reaction products including pure aluminum oxide, feldspar, or aluminosilicate solid solutions (in addition to the iron produced in thermite reactions) was developed. These materials were evaluated for their strong acid resistance (pH 1), carbonate resistance (sodium carbonate) and thermal shock resistance (600 °C heating → cold water quenching repeated three times). Performance of different materials was evaluated based on the changes in mechanical properties, water-fillable porosity, phase changes under stress conditions. The aluminosilicate product exhibited very good corrosion resistance, both from material loss and strength perspectives, while the other products performed with varying degrees of stability. This paper presents the results of the thermite corrosion studies and describes the novel tools being deployed, and under development, to satisfy challenging barrier and intervention applications.
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The TEST-CEM project was a collaborative effort between BNL, SINTEF (Norway), TNO (The Netherlands), EBN (The Netherlands), Equinor (Norway), CURISTEC (France) and Imerys (France) under an umbrella of GEOTHERMICA. This report includes information on supercritical cement research efforts led by BNL.
Energy losses can be significantly reduced if thermally insulating cement is used for energy storage and recovery. The thermal conductivity (TC) of the currently used cement is between 1 and 1.2 W/mK. In this study we assessed the ability of polystyrene (PS)–polybutadiene (PB)–polyacrylic acid (PAA) terpolymer (cross-linked styrene–butadiene rubber, XSBR) latex to improve thermal insulating properties and thermal shock (TS) resistance of class G ordinary Portland cement (OPC) and fly ash cenosphere (FCSs) composites in the temperature range of 100–175 °C. The composites autoclaved at 100 °C were subjected to three cycles, one cycle: 175 °C heat → 25 °C water quenching). In hydrothermal and thermal (TS) environments at elevated temperatures in cement slurries the XSBR latex formed acrylic calcium complexes through acid–base reactions, and the number of such complexes increased at higher temperatures due to the XSBR degradation with formation of additional acrylic groups. As a result, these complexes offered the following five advanced properties to the OPC-based composites: (1) enhanced hydrophobicity; (2) decreased water-fillable porosity; (3) reduced TC for water-saturated composites; (4) minimized loss of compressive strength, Young’s modulus, and compressive fracture toughness after TS; and (5) abated pozzolanic activity of FCSs, which allowed FCSs to persist as thermal insulators under strongly alkaline conditions of cement slurries. Additionally, XSBR-modified slurries possessed improved workability and decreased slurry density due to the air-entraining effect of latex, which resulted in further improvement of thermal insulation performance of the modified composites.
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Geothermal growth is limited by a lack of geographically dispersed high-temperature thermal resources and high initial upfront investment in characterization and well construction. This project intended to address the challenges of energy supply intermittency and enhance grid resilience, reliability, and energy security by storing energy provided from currently available renewable resources in the subsurface to harvest it a later time during at-peak energy demand. This project intended to improve geothermal adoption, reduce initial project risk, and improve price competitiveness through utilizing existing oil and gas infrastructure such as non-productive wells, non-economic fields, dry holes, and orphaned wells. The project also intended to address the lack of geographically dispersed thermal resources and enhance grid resilience, reliability, and energy security by introducing an economical method for storing energy from currently available renewable resources in the subsurface for usage during at-peak energy demand. During this research, the project furthered the understanding of the feasibility of utilizing abandoned oil and gas wells as geothermal heat storage wells. The project team investigated the heat storage and hydrogeological characteristics of subsurface reservoirs in the Illinois Basin to evaluate their response to heat injection for determining the evolution of temperature profiles and heat losses over time using existing and available data sets. The project team then performed modeling and simulation to evaluate the heat losses of returning fluids during heat extraction. The outputs were used to select an optimal candidate reservoir and location in Southern Illinois. The team designed and performed a small-scale field test in an existing oil well to refine the model and to demonstrate the permitting and regulatory pathways necessary for the conversion of oil and gas assets to geothermal use. The field test also serves as a proof of concept and can guide the procedures for future research and implementation. Additionally, the project team, conducted initial market research and customer discovery to develop a go to market strategy for an Advanced Geothermal Energy Storage (AGES) system. The project team in this research also identified the parameters to be refined in future research, to improve the current go to market strategy economic model. To this end several subject matter experts were also identified to assist in future research with geothermal infrastructure setup, energy storage policy and law, energy storage market demand, potential siting based on demand etc. Future research will involve further sophistication of the site commercial modeling, implementing a larger-scale test, and further refinement of the thermodynamic modeling/simulation process. The output will be lifecycle costs and economics suitable for comparison to alternative approaches from a validated full-scale demonstration for venture capital investment into this technology. The project successfully demonstrated the ability to leverage existing oilfield infrastructure, permits, and land access and leasing agreements, to enable geothermal storage projects to come online faster and cheaper than a greenfield development could. This technology could allow for greater energy independence and security through long-term energy storage solutions. The longer duration allows for greater storage for renewables currently limited by hours-long storage durations of lithium-ion. The AGES system would support the growth of renewable energy farms, and provide greater opportunities for a cleaner energy infrastructure.
This presentation is based on the conference paper of an experimental study using field water from the Tuttle geothermal project to investigate geochemical impact when repurposing oil/gas wells for geothermal applications.
This paper presents an experimental study using field water from the Tuttle geothermal project to investigate geochemical impact when repurposing oil/gas wells for geothermal applications.
This paper outlines important information related to the hydraulic stimulation of geothermal wells and considerations for regulators responsible for evaluating applications to conduct these operations. Hydraulic stimulation applied to geothermal wells is an evolving technology that is different from the hydraulic fracturing process widely used to complete unconventional oil and gas wells. Important differences relate to operating pressures, variations in rock and fracture processes, and characteristics and disposal of hydraulic fracture fluids. Hydraulic stimulation is not widely used in the geothermal industry; however, future development of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) will require hydraulic stimulation in order to enhance and create fracture permeability to allow wells to deliver sufficient heat and fluid to power plants. Gigawatts of EGS potential have been identified (U.S. Department of Energy 2019), so it is expected that the use of hydraulic stimulation of geothermal wells will be more common in the future. At present, there are no formal regulations guiding drilling programs or sundry notices that propose hydraulic stimulation of geothermal wells. On federal lands, important constraints and oversight are embedded in the process for obtaining Geothermal Drilling Permits outlined in the Code of Federal Regulations (43 CFR Section 3262.11); in Geothermal Resource Order 2 (GRO 2) guidance for assessment and mitigation of impacts of geothermal operations as well as construction and testing of geothermal wells; and in a Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Induced Seismicity Instruction Memorandum (BLM 2018). Additionally, local knowledge from BLM field offices and expertise of BLM engineers, or that of state regulators for operations on private and state lands, will be applied to fully assess operator applications to conduct geothermal hydraulic stimulation activities. Significant research effort has been directed toward EGS, so geothermal hydraulic stimulation techniques, impacts, and results are evolving and becoming better understood, including adaptation of decades of oil and gas industry experience with hydraulic fracturing of unconventional reservoirs. Recent EGS activities in the United States provide details about hydraulic stimulation with respect to oversight, stimulation design, execution, and results. Based on experience to date, the important issues to address when hydraulically stimulating a geothermal well include the following: 1. Wellbore construction and integrity must be appropriate to protect groundwater and manage stimulation pressures. 2. Understanding of lithology, faults, fractures, and subsurface stress state is necessary to design stimulation plans and predict results. 3. Seismic monitoring allows for observation and mitigation of induced seismicity.
Primary cementing is the most important operation performed on a subterranean well. Cement, placed in the annulus between the casing and the formations, serves as a hydraulic seal preventing fluids and gas migrations, protecting steel casing from corrosion, and supporting the well structure. Poor cementing jobs can be directly responsible for wells not reaching their full capacity, casing corrosion, compromised well integrity and, in the worst-case scenarios, well collapse. Geothermal, thermal recovery, and carbon storage wells offer environments that are especially difficult for cements to survive while the required lifespan of these wells can be years. In these wells currently used cements cannot provide durable well integrity, and new solutions are necessary. The necessity of stabilizing the electric grid, increasing its flexibility, and providing energy on demand will further expand the market of durable cement solutions for applications in high-temperature underground reservoir thermal energy storage wells (HT RTES). The design challenges of special cement systems for such wells originate from chemistry limitations of currently used well cements, aggressive environments, temperature and repeated shock conditions associated with them, and very weak formations that are not uncommon in these wells. During the last 70 years the most common systems for thermal-well construction have been Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) (absolute majority of the wells), silica-lime system, and high aluminum cement-containing formulations. The major issues of calcium-silicate hydrates, that form during the hydration of OPC resulting in hardened material, are their poor chemical resistance to acids due to the calcium interactions with acid anions followed by its eventual dissolution, even in mild acids, such as carbonic acid from CO 2 dissolution, and inadequate bonding to the steel causing serious casing corrosion problems (Sugama & Pyatina, 2019). Performance of OPC-based cement may be significantly improved with organic additives; however, those are limited by their temperature stability. An alternative to calcium-silicate cement was developed by BNL and commercialized by Halliburton as ThermaLock TM cement. Calcium-aluminate-phosphate-based chemistry of the material allowed overcoming acid-resistance problems of OPC, especially in CO 2 -rich geothermal environments. In 2012-2015, building upon this experience, BNL developed Thermal Shock Resistant Cement (TSRC) with the support of Geothermal Technology Office (GTO) of DOE. TSRC has high-temperature stable chemistry, superior properties of cement-metal casing bond and corrosion protection (4-times better than currently used OPC-based formulation), significantly outperforms common well-cements in thermal-shock tests, has self-healing properties, and like ThermaLock TM is CO 2 resistant incorporating carbonate ions into stable hydrates (Gill et al., 2012).