Tue, 16 February, 2021
Superhot fluids – game changer in the geothermal power industry?
Geothermal superhot resources have the potential to become a game changer in the geothermal power industry by multiplying power production from conventional geothermal well fields. Among the major challenges of utilising such fluids is the predictions of their composition. Such predictions are vital for geothermal operators for example in the prediction of scaling and corrosion potential in well and surface pipeline. Thermodynamic data on mineral solubilities and speciation are however lacking for most solutes (gases) in such high temperature superhot fluids to carry out such geochemical modelling predictions.
Measuring superhot fluid properties
As a part of the GEOPRO project we have designed and constructed a state-of-the-art U-tube reactor for carrying out such solubility measurements and managed to successfully measure the solubility of some common salts. In the next months we will finalise the prototype, make more to speed up the measuring process and continue the work and look at other solids and salts.
Article courtesy: University of Iceland
The pictures show the prototype of the U-tube flow-through reactor system to measure solid solubilities in superhot hydrothermal fluids