Development of a Downhole Tool Measuring Real-Time Concentration of Ionic Tracers and pH in Geothermal Reservoirs

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For enhanced or Engineered Geothermal Systems (EGS) geothermal brine is pumped to the surface via the production wells, the heat extracted to turn a turbine to generate electricity, and the spent brine re-injected via injection wells back underground. If designed properly, the subsurface rock formations will lead this water back to the extraction well as heated brine. Proper monitoring of these geothermal reservoirs is essential for developing and maintaining the necessary level of productivity of the field. Chemical tracers are commonly used to characterize the fracture network and determine the connectivity between the injection and production wells. Currently, most tracer experiments involve injecting the tracer at the injection well, manually collecting liquid samples at the wellhead of the production well, and sending the samples off for laboratory analysis. While this method provides accurate tracer concentration data at very low levels of detection, it does not provide information regarding the location of the fractures which were conducting the tracer between wellbores. Sandia is developing a high-temperature electrochemical sensor capable of measuring tracer concentrations and pH downhole on a wireline tool. The goal of this effort is to collect real-time pH and ionic tracer concentration data at temperatures up to 225 degrees C and pressures up to 3000 psi.

In this paper, a prototype electrochemical sensor and the initial data obtained will be presented detailing the measurement of iodide tracer concentrations at high temperature and pressure in a newly developed laboratory scale autoclave.

Citation Formats

Sandia National Laboratories. (2014). Development of a Downhole Tool Measuring Real-Time Concentration of Ionic Tracers and pH in Geothermal Reservoirs [data set]. Retrieved from https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/413.
Export Citation to RIS
Hess, Ryan F., Boyle, Timothy J., Limmer, Steven, Yelton, William G., Bingham, Samuel, Stillman, Greg, Lindblom, Scott, and Cieslewski, Grzegorz. Development of a Downhole Tool Measuring Real-Time Concentration of Ionic Tracers and pH in Geothermal Reservoirs. United States: N.p., 31 Mar, 2014. Web. https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/413.
Hess, Ryan F., Boyle, Timothy J., Limmer, Steven, Yelton, William G., Bingham, Samuel, Stillman, Greg, Lindblom, Scott, & Cieslewski, Grzegorz. Development of a Downhole Tool Measuring Real-Time Concentration of Ionic Tracers and pH in Geothermal Reservoirs. United States. https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/413
Hess, Ryan F., Boyle, Timothy J., Limmer, Steven, Yelton, William G., Bingham, Samuel, Stillman, Greg, Lindblom, Scott, and Cieslewski, Grzegorz. 2014. "Development of a Downhole Tool Measuring Real-Time Concentration of Ionic Tracers and pH in Geothermal Reservoirs". United States. https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/413.
@div{oedi_413, title = {Development of a Downhole Tool Measuring Real-Time Concentration of Ionic Tracers and pH in Geothermal Reservoirs}, author = {Hess, Ryan F., Boyle, Timothy J., Limmer, Steven, Yelton, William G., Bingham, Samuel, Stillman, Greg, Lindblom, Scott, and Cieslewski, Grzegorz.}, abstractNote = {For enhanced or Engineered Geothermal Systems (EGS) geothermal brine is pumped to the surface via the production wells, the heat extracted to turn a turbine to generate electricity, and the spent brine re-injected via injection wells back underground. If designed properly, the subsurface rock formations will lead this water back to the extraction well as heated brine. Proper monitoring of these geothermal reservoirs is essential for developing and maintaining the necessary level of productivity of the field. Chemical tracers are commonly used to characterize the fracture network and determine the connectivity between the injection and production wells. Currently, most tracer experiments involve injecting the tracer at the injection well, manually collecting liquid samples at the wellhead of the production well, and sending the samples off for laboratory analysis. While this method provides accurate tracer concentration data at very low levels of detection, it does not provide information regarding the location of the fractures which were conducting the tracer between wellbores. Sandia is developing a high-temperature electrochemical sensor capable of measuring tracer concentrations and pH downhole on a wireline tool. The goal of this effort is to collect real-time pH and ionic tracer concentration data at temperatures up to 225 degrees C and pressures up to 3000 psi.

In this paper, a prototype electrochemical sensor and the initial data obtained will be presented detailing the measurement of iodide tracer concentrations at high temperature and pressure in a newly developed laboratory scale autoclave.
}, doi = {}, url = {https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/413}, journal = {}, number = , volume = , place = {United States}, year = {2014}, month = {03}}

Details

Data from Mar 31, 2014

Last updated Jun 18, 2024

Submitted May 1, 2014

Organization

Sandia National Laboratories

Contact

Grzegorz Cieslewski

505.284.2532

Authors

Ryan F. Hess

Sandia National Laboratories

Timothy J. Boyle

Sandia National Laboratories

Steven Limmer

Sandia National Laboratories

William G. Yelton

Sandia National Laboratories

Samuel Bingham

Sandia National Laboratories

Greg Stillman

United States Department of Energy

Scott Lindblom

Sandia National Laboratories

Grzegorz Cieslewski

Sandia National Laboratories

DOE Project Details

Project Name High Temperature Chemical Sensing Tool for Distributed Mapping of Fracture Flow in EGS

Project Lead Greg Stillman

Project Number FY14 AOP 1.1.5.1

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