Heat extraction analysis of a novel multilateral-well coaxial closed-loop geothermal system

Gaosheng Wang, Xianzhi Song, Yu Shi, Ruiyue Yang, Feixue Yulong, Rui Zheng and Jiacheng Li

Renewable Energy, 2021, vol. 163, issue C, 974-986

Abstract: We propose a novel multilateral-well coaxial closed-loop geothermal system (CCGS) to help realize the commercial exploitation of hot dry rock. Compared with the enhanced geothermal system, it avoids the high-cost fracturing and environmental problems by closed-loop circulation. Also, the multilateral-well CCGS can significantly increase heat production than traditional vertical-well or horizontal-well CCGSs via lateral wellbores. Then, we establish a new 3D transient model and validate it with experimental data. The temperature field is studied. The Influences of injection flow rate, number of lateral wellbores, wellbore size, thermal conductivity of insulation pipe, and reservoir temperature are analyzed. Results show that the lateral wellbores are vital to improving heat extraction, and a viable lateral-wellbore spacing is determined. The total energy output rises linearly with time, while the extracted heat in the initial stage is limited though the thermal power is high. There is an appropriate injection flow rate by comparing the total energy output and dissipation. A smaller wellbore size is preferred due to the minor effect. A reasonable thermal conductivity exists for the insulation pipe. Particularly, the high-temperature geothermal resources at various depths can be efficiently developed through the multilateral-well CCGS given the effect of reservoir temperature.

Keywords: Geothermal energy; Hot dry rock; Multilateral-well; Closed-loop; Transient heat transfer; Heat extraction analysis (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (27)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960148120313665
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:163:y:2021:i:c:p:974-986

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.08.121

Access Statistics for this article

Renewable Energy is currently edited by Soteris A. Kalogirou and Paul Christodoulides

More articles in Renewable Energy from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().