PROGRESS IN GEOTHERMAL ENERGY DEVELOPMENT, COOPER BASIN, SOUTH AUSTRALIA

2005 ◽  
Vol 45 (1) ◽  
pp. 175
Author(s):  
D. Wyborn ◽  
L. de Graaf ◽  
S. Hann ◽  
B. Nicholson
Keyword(s):  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Fractured Rock ◽  
Sedimentary Cover ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Fracture Network ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Geothermal System ◽  
Lost Circulation ◽  
Drilling Conditions ◽  
Cooper Basin

Geodynamics Limited is nearing the completion of its ‘proof of concept’ hot fractured rock (HFR) program to extract superheated hot water for electricity generation from granite buried beneath the Cooper Basin. Difficult drilling conditions were discovered in the target granite when the Habanero–1 well penetrated permeable sub-horizontal fractures at more than 4,000 m depth. The well was completed at 4,421 m with overpressures in the fractures around this depth exceeding pressures projected from a hydrostatic gradient by more than 5,000 psi. The static rock temperature at the bottom of the well is about 250°C.The overpressures assisted in the development of the world’s largest underground heat exchanger, a volume of rock more than 0.7 km3 defined by more than 11,700 microseismic events located on-site during the injection of 23 ML of fresh water into the granite fracture network. The horizontal heat exchanger is more than 2 km north–south, more than 1 km east–west and more than 300 m thick. During its development there was no evidence of direct upwards growth towards the sedimentary cover, which is at about 3,700 m, though a small number of events were observed above the main cloud of events. From production logging surveys, a major fracture at a depth of 4,254 m is interpreted to have taken most of the flow during the injection.The second well (Habanero–2) was located 500 m southwest of the first. Before intersecting a major fracture, interpreted to be an extension of the dominant fracture in Habanero–1, it was drilled to a depth of 4,325 m. At this depth, total drilling circulation losses were encountered which were only partially overcome with the pumping of calcium carbonate lost circulation material. During the operation the lower 245 m of the drill stem was irretrievably lost, and the well was subsequently sidetracked to a total depth of 4,358 m, just below the main fracture.Flow and circulation testing between the two wells in early 2005 is designed to demonstrate the economic potential of the far-field geothermal system and the heat exchange volume between the two wells.

Time-lapse monitoring of fractured rock response to hydraulic stimulation using pressure tomography

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Márk Somogyvári ◽  
Mohammadreza Jalali
Keyword(s):  
Dynamic Response ◽  
Fractured Rock ◽  
Fluid Pressure ◽  
Time Lapse ◽  
Fracture Network ◽  
Industrial Applications ◽  
Geothermal System ◽  
Fractured Reservoir ◽  
Hydraulic Stimulation ◽  
The Individual

<p>Hydraulic stimulation using high-pressure fluid injection has become the common technique for rock mass treatment in various industrial applications such oil & gas, mining and enhanced geothermal system (EGS) development. Hydraulic stimulation is associated with creation of new fractures or dilation of existing fractures that could alter the flow regime in the stimulated reservoir. In this context, it would be beneficiary to understand the dynamic response of the discrete fracture network (DFN) to the stimulation activities rather than comparison between the changes in injectivity and/or transmissivity.</p><p>In this work, a 2-D fully coupled hydro-mechanical model is developed to simulate the dynamic response of a fractured reservoir to hydraulic stimulation. The model calculates stresses, fracture fluid pressure and flow inside the fractures, and modifies the physical properties of the individual fractures given these values. All these alterations will be calculated and applied after each simulation timestep. The results of this synthetic modelling will be used to test the time-lapse pressure tomography approach.</p><p>Pressure tomography will be simulated at multiple timesteps, to capture the hydraulically active fractures within the system. The used tomographic interpretation will be based on the transdimensional DFN inversion, where model parametrization could change over time. With this methodology we can model the newly opened fractures by the stimulation.</p><p>The time-lapse inversion will use the result of the previous timestep as the initial solution for improved efficiency. We test the proposed methodology on outcrop based synthetic 2-D DFN models. The results could capture the changes of permeability (i.e. aperture) as a direct response to hydraulic stimulation.</p>

Drilling data of deep coal seams of the Cooper Basin: analysis and lessons learned

2018 ◽  
Vol 58 (1) ◽  
pp. 381 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alireza Salmachi ◽  
Erik Dunlop ◽  
Mojtaba Rajabi
Keyword(s):  
Rock Strength ◽  
Flow Characteristics ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Fracture Network ◽  
Lessons Learned ◽  
Strength Analysis ◽  
Coal Seams ◽  
Drilling Data ◽  
Coal Rock ◽  
Cooper Basin

Deep (>4920 ft; >1500 m) coal seams of the Cooper Basin accommodate large amounts of natural gas; however, permeability of this unconventional resource is low and reservoir stimulation in prospective coal intervals is essential to achieve commercial production. This paper aims to analyse drilling data of deep coal seams of the Cooper Basin in South Australia. Drilling data obtained from mud logs are utilised to construct a drillability index (DI), in which rate of penetration is normalised by drilling factors, making DI more sensitive to coal rock strength. Analysis of DI and gas show information provides a preliminary screening tool for studying prospective deep coal seams, before performing in-depth reservoir characterisation and production tests. The decline in DI with depth is attributed to a compaction effect that makes deeper coal seams more difficult to drill through compared with shallow seams. The existence of a fracture network can reduce coal rock strength and consequently DI may increase. The increase in DI may be indirectly related to fluid flow characteristics of the coal seam helping in identifying prospective coal intervals. The DI is also affected by other factors and, hence, should be used in combination with reservoir information to yield conclusive indications. Gas show information and DI results were utilised to indicate the effectiveness of dewatering operation and hydraulic fracture confinement in the wells drilled in the Klebb area located in the Weena Trough.

Fracture mapping and modelling in shale-gas target in the Cooper Basin, South Australia

2011 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
pp. 397 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillaume Backé ◽  
Hani Abul Khair ◽  
Rosalind King ◽  
Simon Holford
Keyword(s):  
Shale Gas ◽  
Seismic Data ◽  
Oil And Gas ◽  
South Australia ◽  
Horizontal Stress ◽  
Fracture Network ◽  
Low Permeability ◽  
Lake Area ◽  
Stress Regime ◽  
Cooper Basin

The success story of a shale-gas reserve development in the United States is triggering a strong industry focus towards similar plays in Australia. The Cooper Basin (located at the border of South Australia and Queensland) and the Otway Basin (extending both onshore and offshore South Australia and Victoria) could be prime targets to develop shale-gas projects. The Cooper Basin, a late-Carboniferous to mid-Triassic basin, is the largest onshore sedimentary basin producing oil and gas from tight conventional reservoirs with low permeability. Fracture stimulation programs are used extensively to produce the oil and gas. Furthermore, new exploration strategies are now targeting possible commercial gas hosted in low-permeability Permian shale units. To maximise production, the development of shale-gas prospects requires a good understanding of the: 1. structure of the reservoirs; 2. mechanical properties of the stratigraphy; 3. fracture geometry and density; 4. in-situ stress field; and, 5. fracture stimulation strategies. In this study, we use a combination of seismic mapping techniques–including horizon and attribute mapping, and an analysis of wellbore geophysical logs–to best constrain the existing fracture network in the basins. This study is based on the processing and analysis of a 3D seismic cube–the Moomba Big Lake survey–which is located in the southwestern part of the Cooper Basin. This dataset covers an area encompassing both a structurally complex setting in the vicinity of a major fault to the SE of the survey, and an area of more subtle deformation corresponding to the southernmost part of the Nappamerri Trough. Structural fabrics trending ˜NW–SE and NE–SW, which are not visible on the amplitude seismic data, are revealed by the analysis of the seismic attributes–namely a similarity (equivalent to a coherency cube), dip steering and maximum curvature attributes. These orientations are similar to those of natural fractures mapped from borehole images logs, and can therefore be interpreted as imaging natural fractures across the Moomba-Big Lake area. This study is the first of its kind able to detect possible fractures from seismic data in the Cooper Basin. The methodology developed here can offer new insights into the structure of sedimentary basins and provide crucial parameters for the development of tight reservoirs. In parallel, a tentative forward model of the generation of a fracture network following a restoration of the Top Roseneath horizon was carried out. The relatively good correlation between the fracture orientations generated by the model and the fractures mapped from geophysical data shows that fractures in the Moomba-Big Lake area may have formed during either a N–S compressive principal horizontal stress, or an E–W compressive principal horizontal tectonic stress regime. In addition, the orientations of the fracture interpreted through this study are also compatible with a generation under the present day stress regime described in this part of the basin, with an maximal horizontal stress trending E–W.

Experimental Investigation of Heat Transfer Enhancement by Using Different Number of Fins in Circular Tube

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Kamil Abdul Hussien
Keyword(s):  
Heat Transfer ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Cold Water ◽  
Finned Tube ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Copper Tube ◽  
Smooth Tube ◽  
Tube Heat Exchanger ◽  
Mass Flow Rates ◽  
Flow Heat

Abstract-The present work investigates the enhancement of heat transfer by using different number of circular fins (8, 10, 12, 16, and 20) in double tube counter flow heat exchanger experimentally. The fins are made of copper with dimensions 66 mm OD, 22 mm ID and 1 mm thickness. Each fin has three of 14 mm diameter perforations located at 120o from each to another. The fins are fixed on a straight smooth copper tube of 1 m length, 19.9 mm ID and 22.2 mm OD. The tube is inserted inside the insulated PVC tube of 100 mm ID. The cold water is pumped around the finned copper tube, inside the PVC, at mass flow rates range (0.01019 - 0.0219) kg/s. The Reynold's number of hot water ranges (640 - 1921). The experiment results are obtained using six double tube heat exchanger (1 smooth tube and the other 5 are finned one). The results, illustrated that the heat transfer coefficient proportionally with the number of fin. The results also showed that the enhancement ratio of heat transfer for finned tube is higher than for smooth tube with (9.2, 10.2, 11.1, 12.1 13.1) times for number of fins (8, 10, 12, 16 and 20) respectively.

scholarly journals Effect of Twisted Fin Array in a Triple-Tube Latent Heat Storage System during the Charging Mode

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 2685
Author(s):  
Mohammad Ghalambaz ◽  
Jasim M. Mahdi ◽  
Amirhossein Shafaghat ◽  
Amir Hossein Eisapour ◽  
Obai Younis ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Energy Storage ◽  
Heat Exchanger ◽  
Latent Heat ◽  
Thermal Energy ◽  
Heat Storage ◽  
Hot Water ◽  
Melting Time ◽  
Latent Heat Storage ◽  
Tube Heat Exchanger ◽  
Storage Rate

This study aims to assess the effect of adding twisted fins in a triple-tube heat exchanger used for latent heat storage compared with using straight fins and no fins. In the proposed heat exchanger, phase change material (PCM) is placed between the middle annulus while hot water is passed in the inner tube and outer annulus in a counter-current direction, as a superior method to melt the PCM and store the thermal energy. The behavior of the system was assessed regarding the liquid fraction and temperature distributions as well as charging time and energy storage rate. The results indicate the advantages of adding twisted fins compared with those of using straight fins. The effect of several twisted fins was also studied to discover its effectiveness on the melting rate. The results demonstrate that deployment of four twisted fins reduced the melting time by 18% compared with using the same number of straight fins, and 25% compared with the no-fins case considering a similar PCM mass. Moreover, the melting time for the case of using four straight fins was 8.3% lower than that compared with the no-fins case. By raising the fins’ number from two to four and six, the heat storage rate rose 14.2% and 25.4%, respectively. This study presents the effects of novel configurations of fins in PCM-based thermal energy storage to deliver innovative products toward commercialization, which can be manufactured with additive manufacturing.

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