Publication Details

Category Text Publication
Reference Category Journals
DOI 10.1038/s41467-019-12146-0
Licence creative commons licence
Title (Primary) The risks of long-term re-injection in supercritical geothermal systems
Author Parisio, F.; Vilarrasa, V.; Wang, W. ORCID logo ; Kolditz, O. ORCID logo ; Nagel, T.
Source Titel Nature Communications
Year 2019
Department ENVINF
Volume 10
Page From art. 4391
Language englisch
Data and Software links https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3294169
Abstract Supercritical geothermal systems are appealing sources of sustainable and carbon-free energy located in volcanic areas. Recent successes in drilling and exploration have opened new possibilities and spiked interest in this technology. Experimental and numerical studies have also confirmed the feasibility of creating fluid conducting fractures in sedimentary and crystalline rocks at high temperature, paving the road towards Enhanced Supercritical Geothermal Systems. Despite their attractiveness, several important questions regarding safe exploitation remain open. We dedicate this manuscript to the first thermo-hydro-mechanical numerical study of a doublet geothermal system in supercritical conditions. Here we show that thermally-induced stress and strain effects dominate the geomechanical response of supercritical systems compared to pore pressure-related instabilities, and greatly enhance seismicity during cold water re-injection. This finding has important consequences in the design of Supercritical Geothermal Systems.
Persistent UFZ Identifier https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=20939&ufzPublicationIdentifier=22317
Parisio, F., Vilarrasa, V., Wang, W., Kolditz, O., Nagel, T. (2019):
The risks of long-term re-injection in supercritical geothermal systems
Nat. Commun. 10 , art. 4391 10.1038/s41467-019-12146-0