Downhole thermoelectric generation in unconventional horizontal wells

Abstract

Excessive water production from hydraulically fractured unconventional reservoirs is historically considered as burdensome liability in terms of costly treatment and disposal. However, this paper demonstrated produced water as a valuable asset, which is capable of producing geothermal energy, and it can actually help offset the operation costs for unconventional oil and gas producers. Harnessing geothermal energy of produced water for power generation from unconventional horizontal wells features significant advantages over traditional geothermal wells, especially in reducing capital expenditure and operational risks. This paper proposed a novel design of downhole power generation in horizontal wells by integration of thermoelectric technology with hydrocarbon production.In the design, we retrofit the horizontal wellbore to circulate cold water inside the tubing so that a cold temperature interface can be created. The produced fluids flow through the annulus of the tubing and casing to maintain hot temperature on the side of tubing. By attaching thermoelectric generators (TEG) on the outer surface of tubing, this retrofit will make it possible to capture subsurface in-situ geothermal energy of the produced fluid and directly transfer heat to electricity inside the horizontal wellbore. Furthermore, we also built the mathematical model to account for the heat conduction and convention in the wellbore and surrounding formation, which could accurately simulate the temperature distribution and power generation under variable operational conditions. Based on the model, we identified the key parameters with significant impact on power generation and established the well section criteria for best power generation performance. To discover the potential of power generation in horizontal wells, we conducted a case study in Daqing Oilfield in northeast China and compared the power generation performance with vertical well with same TVD and same power generation device installation. The results of case study indicated that horizontal well displayed exceeding power generation performance over vertical wells.In practice, this paper could contribute to enrich geothermal development methods and provide the guidelines for oil and gas producer to evaluate their horizontal assets and identify the opportunity to capitalize on geothermal power generation from horizontal wells.