A novel single-well geothermal system for hot dry rock geothermal energy exploitation

Abstract

Existing hot dry rock geothermal projects are commonly confronted with some technical issues, such as corrosion and scaling, and water loss. To resolve these issues, the present work proposes a novel system for mining hot dry rock geothermal energy, in which a reservoir is combined with a heat pipe system. The new system encompasses a heat pipe placed in a single-well to extract hot dry rock geothermal energy, while an artificial reservoir is built around the main endothermic region of the well, which is permeable and saturated with carbon dioxide (CO2). This wellbore structure design may stimulate a stronger natural convection in the reservoir, resulting in a higher thermal power production. To evaluate the proposed system, an extensive numerical investigation was conducted. The comparison of the proposed system with the conventional downhole heat exchanger (DHE) system in terms of heat extraction performance indicates clear superiority of the proposed system primarily due to the associated thermosyphon effect of CO2 fluid in the reservoir. To better understand how operating and design variables affect the heat extraction performance of the system, a detailed sensitivity analysis was conducted taking into consideration a wide range of possible configurations and working conditions. The eventually obtained knowledge will guide the design of the system in practice.