IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v15y2022i9p3296-d806678.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Numerical Simulation and Economic Evaluation of Wellbore Self-Circulation for Heat Extraction Using Cluster Horizontal Wells

Author

Listed:
  • Zhen Zhao

    (Faculty of Engineering, China University of Geosciences (Wuhan), Wuhan 430074, China
    Qinghai Bureau of Environmental Geological Exploration, Xining 810001, China
    Qinghai Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Geology, Xining 810001, China
    Qinghai 906 Engineering Survey and Design Institute, Xining 810001, China)

  • Guangxiong Qin

    (Qinghai Bureau of Environmental Geological Exploration, Xining 810001, China
    Qinghai Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Geology, Xining 810001, China
    Qinghai 906 Engineering Survey and Design Institute, Xining 810001, China)

  • Huijuan Chen

    (Qinghai Bureau of Environmental Geological Exploration, Xining 810001, China
    Qinghai Provincial Key Laboratory of Environmental Geology, Xining 810001, China
    Qinghai 906 Engineering Survey and Design Institute, Xining 810001, China)

  • Linchao Yang

    (School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
    Key Laboratory of Unconventional Oil & Gas Development, China University of Petroleum (East China), Ministry of Education, Qingdao 266580, China)

  • Songhe Geng

    (School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
    Key Laboratory of Unconventional Oil & Gas Development, China University of Petroleum (East China), Ministry of Education, Qingdao 266580, China)

  • Ronghua Wen

    (School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
    Key Laboratory of Unconventional Oil & Gas Development, China University of Petroleum (East China), Ministry of Education, Qingdao 266580, China)

  • Liang Zhang

    (School of Petroleum Engineering, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
    Key Laboratory of Unconventional Oil & Gas Development, China University of Petroleum (East China), Ministry of Education, Qingdao 266580, China)

Abstract

The heat extraction capacity of the self-circulation wellbore is usually small because of the limited heat exchange area. In the paper, the cluster horizontal well group technology was proposed to enhance the heat extraction capacity and decrease the unit cost. Based on the mathematical model of heat transfer, a numerical simulation model of wellbore self-circulation for heat extraction using cluster horizontal wells was established to study the influence of main factors on heat extraction capacity. The economic analysis of heat extraction and power generation was carried out according to the model of the levelized cost of energy. The results show that the enhancement of heat extraction capacity is limited after the injection rate exceeds 432 m 3 /d (1.59 MW/well). The inflection point of the injection rate can be determined as the design basis for injection-production parameters. When the thermal conductivity of formation increases from 2 to 3.5 W/(m·K), the heat extraction rate will increase 1.45 times, indicating that the sandstone reservoirs with good thermal conductivity can be preferred as the heat extraction site. It is recommended that the well spacing of cluster wells is larger than 50 m to avoid the phenomenon of thermal short circuit between wells, and the thermal conductivity of the tubing should be less than 0.035 W/(m·K) to reduce the heat loss of heat-carrying fluid in the tubing. Compared with a single well, a cluster horizontal well group can reduce the unit cost of heat extraction and power generation by 24.3% and 25.5%, respectively. The economy can also be improved by optimizing heat-carrying fluids and retrofitting existing wells.

Suggested Citation

  • Zhen Zhao & Guangxiong Qin & Huijuan Chen & Linchao Yang & Songhe Geng & Ronghua Wen & Liang Zhang, 2022. "Numerical Simulation and Economic Evaluation of Wellbore Self-Circulation for Heat Extraction Using Cluster Horizontal Wells," Energies, MDPI, vol. 15(9), pages 1-26, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:9:p:3296-:d:806678
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/9/3296/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/15/9/3296/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Beier, Richard A. & Acuña, José & Mogensen, Palne & Palm, Björn, 2013. "Borehole resistance and vertical temperature profiles in coaxial borehole heat exchangers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 102(C), pages 665-675.
    2. Wang, Gaosheng & Song, Xianzhi & Shi, Yu & Yang, Ruiyue & Yulong, Feixue & Zheng, Rui & Li, Jiacheng, 2021. "Heat extraction analysis of a novel multilateral-well coaxial closed-loop geothermal system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 974-986.
    3. Yao, Sheng & Zhang, Yufeng & Yu, Xiaohui, 2018. "Thermo-economic analysis of a novel power generation system integrating a natural gas expansion plant with a geothermal ORC in Tianjin, China," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 602-614.
    4. Spitler, Jeffrey D. & Javed, Saqib & Ramstad, Randi Kalskin, 2016. "Natural convection in groundwater-filled boreholes used as ground heat exchangers," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 352-365.
    5. Song, Xianzhi & Wang, Gaosheng & Shi, Yu & Li, Ruixia & Xu, Zhengming & Zheng, Rui & Wang, Yu & Li, Jiacheng, 2018. "Numerical analysis of heat extraction performance of a deep coaxial borehole heat exchanger geothermal system," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 164(C), pages 1298-1310.
    6. Kujawa, Tomasz & Nowak, Władysław & Stachel, Aleksander A., 2006. "Utilization of existing deep geological wells for acquisitions of geothermal energy," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 650-664.
    7. Lu, Shyi-Min, 2018. "A global review of enhanced geothermal system (EGS)," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 81(P2), pages 2902-2921.
    8. Pokhrel, Sajjan & Sasmito, Agus P. & Sainoki, Atsushi & Tosha, Toshiyuki & Tanaka, Tatsuya & Nagai, Chiaki & Ghoreishi-Madiseh, Seyed Ali, 2022. "Field-scale experimental and numerical analysis of a downhole coaxial heat exchanger for geothermal energy production," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 521-535.
    9. Cui, Guodong & Ren, Shaoran & Zhang, Liang & Ezekiel, Justin & Enechukwu, Chioma & Wang, Yi & Zhang, Rui, 2017. "Geothermal exploitation from hot dry rocks via recycling heat transmission fluid in a horizontal well," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 128(C), pages 366-377.
    10. Wang, Yi & Zhang, Liang & Cui, Guodong & Kang, Jun & Ren, Shaoran, 2019. "Geothermal development and power generation by circulating water and isobutane via a closed-loop horizontal well from hot dry rocks," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 909-922.
    11. Alimonti, C. & Soldo, E., 2016. "Study of geothermal power generation from a very deep oil well with a wellbore heat exchanger," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 292-301.
    12. Zhang, Liang & Ezekiel, Justin & Li, Dexiang & Pei, Jingjing & Ren, Shaoran, 2014. "Potential assessment of CO2 injection for heat mining and geological storage in geothermal reservoirs of China," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 237-246.
    13. Gordon, David & Bolisetti, Tirupati & Ting, David S-K. & Reitsma, Stanley, 2018. "Experimental and analytical investigation on pipe sizes for a coaxial borehole heat exchanger," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 115(C), pages 946-953.
    14. Dai, Chuanshan & Li, Jiashu & Shi, Yu & Zeng, Long & Lei, Haiyan, 2019. "An experiment on heat extraction from a deep geothermal well using a downhole coaxial open loop design," Applied Energy, Elsevier, vol. 252(C), pages 1-1.
    15. Yildirim, Nurdan & Parmanto, Slamet & Akkurt, Gulden Gokcen, 2019. "Thermodynamic assessment of downhole heat exchangers for geothermal power generation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 1080-1091.
    16. Holmberg, Henrik & Acuña, José & Næss, Erling & Sønju, Otto K., 2016. "Thermal evaluation of coaxial deep borehole heat exchangers," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 65-76.
    17. Kurnia, Jundika C. & Putra, Zulfan A. & Muraza, Oki & Ghoreishi-Madiseh, Seyed Ali & Sasmito, Agus P., 2021. "Numerical evaluation, process design and techno-economic analysis of geothermal energy extraction from abandoned oil wells in Malaysia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 868-879.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Liang Zhang & Songhe Geng & Jun Kang & Jiahao Chao & Linchao Yang & Fangping Yan, 2020. "Experimental Study on the Heat Exchange Mechanism in a Simulated Self-Circulation Wellbore," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-22, June.
    2. Pokhrel, Sajjan & Sasmito, Agus P. & Sainoki, Atsushi & Tosha, Toshiyuki & Tanaka, Tatsuya & Nagai, Chiaki & Ghoreishi-Madiseh, Seyed Ali, 2022. "Field-scale experimental and numerical analysis of a downhole coaxial heat exchanger for geothermal energy production," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 182(C), pages 521-535.
    3. Kurnia, Jundika C. & Putra, Zulfan A. & Muraza, Oki & Ghoreishi-Madiseh, Seyed Ali & Sasmito, Agus P., 2021. "Numerical evaluation, process design and techno-economic analysis of geothermal energy extraction from abandoned oil wells in Malaysia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 868-879.
    4. Luka Boban & Dino Miše & Stjepan Herceg & Vladimir Soldo, 2021. "Application and Design Aspects of Ground Heat Exchangers," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(8), pages 1-31, April.
    5. Bu, Xianbiao & Ran, Yunmin & Zhang, Dongdong, 2019. "Experimental and simulation studies of geothermal single well for building heating," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 143(C), pages 1902-1909.
    6. Cui, Guodong & Pei, Shufeng & Rui, Zhenhua & Dou, Bin & Ning, Fulong & Wang, Jiaqiang, 2021. "Whole process analysis of geothermal exploitation and power generation from a depleted high-temperature gas reservoir by recycling CO2," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 217(C).
    7. Tang, Hewei & Xu, Boyue & Hasan, A. Rashid & Sun, Zhuang & Killough, John, 2019. "Modeling wellbore heat exchangers: Fully numerical to fully analytical solutions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 1124-1135.
    8. Huang, Yibin & Zhang, Yanjun & Xie, Yangyang & Zhang, Yu & Gao, Xuefeng & Ma, Jingchen, 2020. "Field test and numerical investigation on deep coaxial borehole heat exchanger based on distributed optical fiber temperature sensor," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 210(C).
    9. Hou, Xinglan & Zhong, Xiuping & Nie, Shuaishuai & Wang, Yafei & Tu, Guigang & Ma, Yingrui & Liu, Kunyan & Chen, Chen, 2023. "Numerical simulation study of intermittent heat extraction from hot dry rock using horizontal well based on thermal compensation," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 272(C).
    10. Zhang, Liang & Yang, Linchao & Geng, Songhe & Wen, Ronghua & He, Chuan & Liang, Yuzhu & Yang, Hongbin, 2022. "Numerical simulation on the heat extraction from the porous medium-low temperature geothermal reservoirs by self-circulation wellbore and its enhanced methods," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 1009-1025.
    11. Yu, Han & Xu, Tianfu & Yuan, Yilong & Feng, Bo & ShangGuan, Shuantong, 2023. "Enhanced heat extraction performance from deep buried U-shaped well using the high-pressure jet grouting technology," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 202(C), pages 1377-1386.
    12. Wei, Changjiang & Mao, Liangjie & Yao, Changshun & Yu, Guijian, 2022. "Heat transfer investigation between wellbore and formation in U-shaped geothermal wells with long horizontal section," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 195(C), pages 972-989.
    13. Wang, Yi & Zhang, Liang & Cui, Guodong & Kang, Jun & Ren, Shaoran, 2019. "Geothermal development and power generation by circulating water and isobutane via a closed-loop horizontal well from hot dry rocks," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 909-922.
    14. Wang, Gaosheng & Song, Xianzhi & Shi, Yu & Yang, Ruiyue & Yulong, Feixue & Zheng, Rui & Li, Jiacheng, 2021. "Heat extraction analysis of a novel multilateral-well coaxial closed-loop geothermal system," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 163(C), pages 974-986.
    15. Guo, Tiankui & Zhang, Yuelong & He, Jiayuan & Gong, Facheng & Chen, Ming & Liu, Xiaoqiang, 2021. "Research on geothermal development model of abandoned high temperature oil reservoir in North China oilfield," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 177(C), pages 1-12.
    16. Zhang, Yuanyuan & Ye, Cantao & Kong, Yanlong & Gong, Yulie & Zhang, Dongdong & Yao, Yecheng, 2023. "Thermal attenuation and heat supplementary analysis of medium-deep coaxial borehole system-based on a practical project," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 270(C).
    17. Dai, Jiacheng & Li, Jingbin & Wang, Tianyu & Zhu, Liying & Tian, Kangjian & Chen, Zhaoting, 2023. "Thermal performance analysis of coaxial borehole heat exchanger using liquid ammonia," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 263(PE).
    18. Nian, Yong-Le & Cheng, Wen-Long, 2018. "Insights into geothermal utilization of abandoned oil and gas wells," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 44-60.
    19. Hu, Xincheng & Banks, Jonathan & Guo, Yunting & Liu, Wei Victor, 2021. "Retrofitting abandoned petroleum wells as doublet deep borehole heat exchangers for geothermal energy production—a numerical investigation," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 176(C), pages 115-134.
    20. Wang, Huaijing, 2023. "Modeling of multiple thermal fluid circulation in horizontal section of wellbores," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 282(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:15:y:2022:i:9:p:3296-:d:806678. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.