Calculating thermophysical fluid properties during geothermal energy production with NESS and Reaktoro

Abstract

We investigate how subsurface fluids of different compositions affect the electricity generation of geothermal power plants. First, we outline a numerical model capable of accounting for the thermophysical properties of geothermal fluids of arbitrary composition within simulations of geothermal power production. The behavior of brines with varying compositions from geothermal sites around the globe are then examined using the model. The effect of each brine on an idealized binary geothermal power plant is simulated, and their performances compared by calculating the amount of heat exchanged from the fluid to the plant's secondary cycle.Our simulations combine (1) a newly developed Non-linear Equation System Solver (NESS), for simulating individual geothermal power plant components, (2) the advanced geochemical speciation solver, Reaktoro, used for calculation of thermodynamic fluid properties, and (3) compositional models for the calculation of fluid-dynamical properties (e.g., viscosity as a function of temperature and brine composition). The accuracy of the model is verified by comparing its predictions with experimental data from single-salt, binary-salt, and multiple-salt solutions.The geothermal power plant simulations show that the brines considered in this study can be divided into three main categories: (1) those of largely meteoric origin with low salinity for which the effect of salt concentration is negligible; (2) moderate-depth brines with high concentrations of Na+ and K+ ions, whose performance is well approximated by pure NaCl solutions of equivalent salinity; and (3) deeper, high-salinity brines that require a more detailed consideration of their composition for accurate simulation of plant operations.