Abstract
Geothermal energy is taken as an important and future oriented energy source because of its renewable and clean features. The growth of geothermal exploitation and utilization, especially electricity generation, is still quite slow globally. The reason behind this situation can be attributed to high exploitation risk and cost, high water demand, and other environment related issues. The exploitation of deep geothermal energy could be more acceptable if the risk and cost can be effectively reduced. Therefore, a single well based geothermal system could be a possible choice, because the geological and hydrogeological uncertainty can be greatly reduced. However, a single well system is of limited area for heat transfer, thus usually resulting in low outlet temperature and unsatisfactory system efficiency. In the present work, existing methods for improving the heat extraction capability of a single-well geothermal system will be classified into different categories according to the theoretical model of borehole heat exchanger. The pros and cons of different methods are systematically analyzed, and some viable options that have not been investigated or paid attention to are also introduced with quantitative analysis. It is recommended to combine two or more methods together to achieve a better enhancement effect.
Article highlights
-
1.
Various solutions for enhancing the thermal performance of single-well geothermal systems are grouped into four categories based on its governing equation,
-
2.
Targeted solutions were delivered for building an enhanced close- or open-loop system,
-
3.
Structured surface (STR), High-thermal-conductive Hollow Spiral Channel (HHSC), and hybrid LNG-BHE system can bring about remarkable performance improvement.
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- \({\left.{A}_{x}\right|}_{y}\) :
-
Area for heat transfer, \(x\) can be “cem” or “cas”; \(y\) can be “in” or “out”
- d z :
-
The derivative with respect to z
- \({h}_{cas}\) :
-
Convective heat transfer coefficient at inner side of casing layer
- \({h}_{cem}\) :
-
Convective heat transfer coefficient at outer side of cement layer
- \({K}_{cas}\) :
-
Thermal conductivity of casing layer
- \({K}_{cem}\) :
-
Thermal conductivity of cement layer
- L :
-
Well length or depth
- \({Q}_{ttl}\) :
-
Total heat inflow
- \({R}_{i}\) :
-
Radius of wellbore components (i = 1, 2,…,5)
- \({T}_{fi}\) :
-
Temperature of working liquid in contact with the casing layer
- \({T}_{e,cem}\) :
-
Temperature of formation in contact with the cement layer
- \(z\) :
-
Oordinate along well depth or length
- \(\Delta T\) :
-
Temperature difference between \({T}_{fi}\) and \({T}_{e,cem}\)
- ALT:
-
Atmospheric lifetime
- BHE:
-
Borehole heat exchanger
- CONV:
-
Conventional structure design
- F/S:
-
Field scale
- GWP:
-
Global warming potential
- HHSC:
-
High-thermal-conductive, Hollow Spiral Channel
- IHE:
-
Internal heat exchanger
- LNG:
-
Liquified natural gas
- LN2:
-
Liquified nitrogen
- MJ:
-
Megajoule or 1 million joules
- ODP:
-
Ozone depletion potential
- ORC:
-
Organic Rankine Cycle
- PCM:
-
Phase change materials
- ROI:
-
Return on investment
- STR:
-
Structured grid/surface
- T-s:
-
Temperature-entropy
- TW:
-
Terawatt or 1 trillion watts
- WF:
-
Working fluids
- yr.:
-
Year
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank the "Start-up Funding for New Faculty" provided by the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
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Xiao, F., Zhao, Z. & Yang, L. Innovative measures for thermal performance enhancement of single well-based deep geothermal systems: existing solutions and some viable options. Geomech. Geophys. Geo-energ. Geo-resour. 8, 137 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40948-022-00433-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40948-022-00433-y