Heat mining from super-hot horizons of the Larderello geothermal field, Italy

Guanhong Feng, Tianfu Xu, Yue'an Zhao and Fabrizio Gherardi

Renewable Energy, 2022, vol. 197, issue C, 371-383

Abstract: Super-hot rock geothermal is an emerging source of renewable and carbon-free energy. This paper is the first attempt to explore fluid and heat flow dynamics in the reservoir-wellbore coupled system, to assess the power generation performance of a super-hot (>450 °C) enhanced geothermal system (EGS). We developed a high-performance code and built a 3-D wellbore-reservoir coupled model based on data from a recently completed deep-drilling project at Larderello, Italy. The general pattern of the super-hot EGS is characterized by a significant temperature plummet (>60 °C), after which the production fluid evolves from steam to a two-phase mixture till the end of the operation period. Reservoir pressure emerges as a key parameter to determine the temperature of the two-phase mixture. By realistically capturing phase transitions driven by coupled thermo-hydraulic processes during operations, our numerical model predicts a lower power generation efficiency compared to previous attempts based on ultra-simplified models. Although finalized at assessing the thermodynamic viability of a specific system, this modeling approach provides general information on fundamental thermo-hydraulic processes in the Earth crust that might be applied for the design of similar EGS projects elsewhere.

Keywords: Super-hot geothermal; Enhanced geothermal system (EGS); Numerical modeling; Reservoir-wellbore coupled simulation; Larderello (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:renene:v:197:y:2022:i:c:p:371-383

DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2022.07.078

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