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Applications of Geothermally-Produced Colloidal Silica in Reservoir Management - Smart Gels

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In enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) the reservoir permeability is often enhanced or created using hydraulic fracturing. In hydraulic fracturing, high fluid pressures are applied to confined zones in the subsurface usually using packers to fracture the host rock. This enhances rock permeability and therefore conductive heat transfer to the circulating geothermal fluid (e.g. water or supercritical carbon dioxide). The ultimate goal is to increase or improve the thermal energy production from the subsurface by either optimal designs of injection and production wells or by altering the fracture permeability to create different zones of circulation that can be exploited in geothermal heat extraction. Moreover, hydraulic fracturing can lead to the creation of undesirable short-circuits or fast flow-paths between the injection and extraction wells leading to a short thermal residence time, low heat recovery, and thus a short-life of the EGS.

A potential remedy to these problems is to deploy a cementing (blocking, diverting) agent to minimize short-cuts and/or create new circulation cells for heat extraction. A potential diverting agent is the colloidal silica by-product that can be co-produced from geothermal fluids. Silica gels are abundant in various surface and subsurface applications, yet they have not been evaluated for EGS applications. In this study we are investigating the benefits of silica gel deployment on thermal response of an EGS, either by blocking short-circuiting undesirable pathways as a result of diverting the geofluid to other fractures; or creating, within fractures, new circulation cells for harvesting heat through newly active surface area contact. A significant advantage of colloidal silica is that it can be co-produced from geothermal fluids using an inexpensive membrane-based separation technology that was developed previously using DOE-GTP funding.

This co-produced silica has properties that potentially make it useful as a fluid diversion agent for subsurface applications. Colloidal silica solutions exist as low-viscosity fluids during their "induction period" but then undergo a rapid increase in viscosity (gelation) to form a solid gel. The length of the induction period can be manipulated by varying the properties of the solution, such as silica concentration and colloid size. We believe it is possible to produce colloidal silica gels suitable for use as diverting agents for blocking undesirable fast-paths which result in short-circuiting the EGS once hydraulic fracturing has been deployed. In addition, the gels could be used in conventional geothermal fields to increase overall energy recovery by modifying flow.

Citation Formats

TY - DATA AB - In enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) the reservoir permeability is often enhanced or created using hydraulic fracturing. In hydraulic fracturing, high fluid pressures are applied to confined zones in the subsurface usually using packers to fracture the host rock. This enhances rock permeability and therefore conductive heat transfer to the circulating geothermal fluid (e.g. water or supercritical carbon dioxide). The ultimate goal is to increase or improve the thermal energy production from the subsurface by either optimal designs of injection and production wells or by altering the fracture permeability to create different zones of circulation that can be exploited in geothermal heat extraction. Moreover, hydraulic fracturing can lead to the creation of undesirable short-circuits or fast flow-paths between the injection and extraction wells leading to a short thermal residence time, low heat recovery, and thus a short-life of the EGS. A potential remedy to these problems is to deploy a cementing (blocking, diverting) agent to minimize short-cuts and/or create new circulation cells for heat extraction. A potential diverting agent is the colloidal silica by-product that can be co-produced from geothermal fluids. Silica gels are abundant in various surface and subsurface applications, yet they have not been evaluated for EGS applications. In this study we are investigating the benefits of silica gel deployment on thermal response of an EGS, either by blocking short-circuiting undesirable pathways as a result of diverting the geofluid to other fractures; or creating, within fractures, new circulation cells for harvesting heat through newly active surface area contact. A significant advantage of colloidal silica is that it can be co-produced from geothermal fluids using an inexpensive membrane-based separation technology that was developed previously using DOE-GTP funding. This co-produced silica has properties that potentially make it useful as a fluid diversion agent for subsurface applications. Colloidal silica solutions exist as low-viscosity fluids during their "induction period" but then undergo a rapid increase in viscosity (gelation) to form a solid gel. The length of the induction period can be manipulated by varying the properties of the solution, such as silica concentration and colloid size. We believe it is possible to produce colloidal silica gels suitable for use as diverting agents for blocking undesirable fast-paths which result in short-circuiting the EGS once hydraulic fracturing has been deployed. In addition, the gels could be used in conventional geothermal fields to increase overall energy recovery by modifying flow. AU - Hunt, Jonathan A2 - Ezzedine, Souheil A3 - Bourcier, William A4 - Roberts, Sarah DB - Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI) DP - Open EI | National Renewable Energy Laboratory DO - 10.15121/1148834 KW - geothermal KW - zonal isolation KW - reservoir management KW - fluid diversion KW - colloidal silica KW - silica KW - coproduction LA - English DA - 2013/01/31 PY - 2013 PB - Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory T1 - Applications of Geothermally-Produced Colloidal Silica in Reservoir Management - Smart Gels UR - https://doi.org/10.15121/1148834 ER -
Export Citation to RIS
Hunt, Jonathan, et al. Applications of Geothermally-Produced Colloidal Silica in Reservoir Management - Smart Gels. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, 31 January, 2013, GDR. https://doi.org/10.15121/1148834.
Hunt, J., Ezzedine, S., Bourcier, W., & Roberts, S. (2013). Applications of Geothermally-Produced Colloidal Silica in Reservoir Management - Smart Gels. [Data set]. GDR. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. https://doi.org/10.15121/1148834
Hunt, Jonathan, Souheil Ezzedine, William Bourcier, and Sarah Roberts. Applications of Geothermally-Produced Colloidal Silica in Reservoir Management - Smart Gels. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, January, 31, 2013. Distributed by GDR. https://doi.org/10.15121/1148834
@misc{OEDI_Dataset_6555, title = {Applications of Geothermally-Produced Colloidal Silica in Reservoir Management - Smart Gels}, author = {Hunt, Jonathan and Ezzedine, Souheil and Bourcier, William and Roberts, Sarah}, abstractNote = {In enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) the reservoir permeability is often enhanced or created using hydraulic fracturing. In hydraulic fracturing, high fluid pressures are applied to confined zones in the subsurface usually using packers to fracture the host rock. This enhances rock permeability and therefore conductive heat transfer to the circulating geothermal fluid (e.g. water or supercritical carbon dioxide). The ultimate goal is to increase or improve the thermal energy production from the subsurface by either optimal designs of injection and production wells or by altering the fracture permeability to create different zones of circulation that can be exploited in geothermal heat extraction. Moreover, hydraulic fracturing can lead to the creation of undesirable short-circuits or fast flow-paths between the injection and extraction wells leading to a short thermal residence time, low heat recovery, and thus a short-life of the EGS.

A potential remedy to these problems is to deploy a cementing (blocking, diverting) agent to minimize short-cuts and/or create new circulation cells for heat extraction. A potential diverting agent is the colloidal silica by-product that can be co-produced from geothermal fluids. Silica gels are abundant in various surface and subsurface applications, yet they have not been evaluated for EGS applications. In this study we are investigating the benefits of silica gel deployment on thermal response of an EGS, either by blocking short-circuiting undesirable pathways as a result of diverting the geofluid to other fractures; or creating, within fractures, new circulation cells for harvesting heat through newly active surface area contact. A significant advantage of colloidal silica is that it can be co-produced from geothermal fluids using an inexpensive membrane-based separation technology that was developed previously using DOE-GTP funding.

This co-produced silica has properties that potentially make it useful as a fluid diversion agent for subsurface applications. Colloidal silica solutions exist as low-viscosity fluids during their "induction period" but then undergo a rapid increase in viscosity (gelation) to form a solid gel. The length of the induction period can be manipulated by varying the properties of the solution, such as silica concentration and colloid size. We believe it is possible to produce colloidal silica gels suitable for use as diverting agents for blocking undesirable fast-paths which result in short-circuiting the EGS once hydraulic fracturing has been deployed. In addition, the gels could be used in conventional geothermal fields to increase overall energy recovery by modifying flow.}, url = {https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/210}, year = {2013}, howpublished = {GDR, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, https://doi.org/10.15121/1148834}, note = {Accessed: 2025-05-03}, doi = {10.15121/1148834} }
https://dx.doi.org/10.15121/1148834

Details

Data from Jan 31, 2013

Last updated May 24, 2017

Submitted Jun 25, 2013

Organization

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Contact

Jonathan Hunt

925.422.4266

Authors

Jonathan Hunt

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Souheil Ezzedine

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

William Bourcier

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Sarah Roberts

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

Research Areas

DOE Project Details

Project Lead Lauren Boyd

Project Number LLNL FY11 AOP 1

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