Barite Scaling Potential Modelled for Fractured-Porous Geothermal Reservoirs

Barite scalings are a common cause of permanent formation damage to deep geothermal reservoirs. Well injectivity can be impaired because the ooling of saline fluids reduces the solubility of barite, and the continuous re-injection of supersaturated fluids forces barite to precipitate in the host roc...

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Autores principales:	Morgan Tranter, Marco De Lucia, Michael Kühn
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	MDPI AG 2021
Materias:	reactive transport radial flow geothermal energy injectivity phreeqc formation damage Mineralogy QE351-399.2
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/849cab08fcf64b0eaf9a275b3b013f48
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:849cab08fcf64b0eaf9a275b3b013f482021-11-25T18:26:13ZBarite Scaling Potential Modelled for Fractured-Porous Geothermal Reservoirs10.3390/min111111982075-163Xhttps://doaj.org/article/849cab08fcf64b0eaf9a275b3b013f482021-10-01T00:00:00Zhttps://www.mdpi.com/2075-163X/11/11/1198https://doaj.org/toc/2075-163XBarite scalings are a common cause of permanent formation damage to deep geothermal reservoirs. Well injectivity can be impaired because the ooling of saline fluids reduces the solubility of barite, and the continuous re-injection of supersaturated fluids forces barite to precipitate in the host rock. Stimulated reservoirs in the Upper Rhine Graben often have multiple relevant flow paths in the porous matrix and fracture zones, sometimes spanning multiple stratigraphical units to achieve the economically necessary injectivity. While the influence of barite scaling on injectivity has been investigated for purely porous media, the role of fractures within reservoirs consisting of both fractured and porous sections is still not well understood. Here, we present hydro-chemical simulations of a dual-layer geothermal reservoir to study the long-term impact of barite scale formation on well injectivity. Our results show that, compared to purely porous reservoirs, fractured porous reservoirs have a significantly reduced scaling risk by up to <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>50</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>, depending on the flow rate ratio of fractures. Injectivity loss is doubled, however, if the amount of active fractures is increased by one order of magnitude, while the mean fracture aperture is decreased, provided the fractured aquifer dictates the injection rate. We conclude that fractured, and especially hydraulically stimulated, reservoirs are generally less affected by barite scaling and that large, but few, fractures are favourable. We present a scaling score for fractured-porous reservoirs, which is composed of easily derivable quantities such as the radial equilibrium length and precipitation potential. This score is suggested for use approximating the scaling potential and its impact on injectivity of a fractured-porous reservoir for geothermal exploitation.Morgan TranterMarco De LuciaMichael KühnMDPI AGarticlereactive transportradial flowgeothermal energyinjectivityphreeqcformation damageMineralogyQE351-399.2ENMinerals, Vol 11, Iss 1198, p 1198 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	reactive transport radial flow geothermal energy injectivity phreeqc formation damage Mineralogy QE351-399.2
spellingShingle	reactive transport radial flow geothermal energy injectivity phreeqc formation damage Mineralogy QE351-399.2 Morgan Tranter Marco De Lucia Michael Kühn Barite Scaling Potential Modelled for Fractured-Porous Geothermal Reservoirs
description	Barite scalings are a common cause of permanent formation damage to deep geothermal reservoirs. Well injectivity can be impaired because the ooling of saline fluids reduces the solubility of barite, and the continuous re-injection of supersaturated fluids forces barite to precipitate in the host rock. Stimulated reservoirs in the Upper Rhine Graben often have multiple relevant flow paths in the porous matrix and fracture zones, sometimes spanning multiple stratigraphical units to achieve the economically necessary injectivity. While the influence of barite scaling on injectivity has been investigated for purely porous media, the role of fractures within reservoirs consisting of both fractured and porous sections is still not well understood. Here, we present hydro-chemical simulations of a dual-layer geothermal reservoir to study the long-term impact of barite scale formation on well injectivity. Our results show that, compared to purely porous reservoirs, fractured porous reservoirs have a significantly reduced scaling risk by up to <inline-formula><math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"><semantics><mrow><mn>50</mn><mo>%</mo></mrow></semantics></math></inline-formula>, depending on the flow rate ratio of fractures. Injectivity loss is doubled, however, if the amount of active fractures is increased by one order of magnitude, while the mean fracture aperture is decreased, provided the fractured aquifer dictates the injection rate. We conclude that fractured, and especially hydraulically stimulated, reservoirs are generally less affected by barite scaling and that large, but few, fractures are favourable. We present a scaling score for fractured-porous reservoirs, which is composed of easily derivable quantities such as the radial equilibrium length and precipitation potential. This score is suggested for use approximating the scaling potential and its impact on injectivity of a fractured-porous reservoir for geothermal exploitation.
format	article
author	Morgan Tranter Marco De Lucia Michael Kühn
author_facet	Morgan Tranter Marco De Lucia Michael Kühn
author_sort	Morgan Tranter
title	Barite Scaling Potential Modelled for Fractured-Porous Geothermal Reservoirs
title_short	Barite Scaling Potential Modelled for Fractured-Porous Geothermal Reservoirs
title_full	Barite Scaling Potential Modelled for Fractured-Porous Geothermal Reservoirs
title_fullStr	Barite Scaling Potential Modelled for Fractured-Porous Geothermal Reservoirs
title_full_unstemmed	Barite Scaling Potential Modelled for Fractured-Porous Geothermal Reservoirs
title_sort	barite scaling potential modelled for fractured-porous geothermal reservoirs
publisher	MDPI AG
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/849cab08fcf64b0eaf9a275b3b013f48
work_keys_str_mv	AT morgantranter baritescalingpotentialmodelledforfracturedporousgeothermalreservoirs AT marcodelucia baritescalingpotentialmodelledforfracturedporousgeothermalreservoirs AT michaelkuhn baritescalingpotentialmodelledforfracturedporousgeothermalreservoirs
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Barite Scaling Potential Modelled for Fractured-Porous Geothermal Reservoirs

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