Co-exploitation of coal and geothermal energy through water-conducting structures: Improving extraction efficiency of geothermal well

Co-exploitation of coal and geothermal energy through water-conducting structures is one of the most promising methods for harnessing renewable energy in some coal mines. A rock compression-erosion coupling test system is built to investigate the extraction efficiency of geothermal wells in the co-exploitation scheme. Compression-erosion tests are carried out to analyze the evolution of mechanics and hydraulic characteristics of broken rocks. The testing results show that the hydrothermal flow erodes the fine rock particles, and compressive deformation can be observed during the erosion process. The erosion effect in broken rocks intensifies with the decrease of axial stress and the increase of fractal dimension, water pressure, and inner radius. Meanwhile, the rock sample shows more significant deformation. Two permeability forecasting models are adopted to forecast permeability evolution during geothermal extraction. The forecasting results indicate that the Brinkman model is better than the Hazen model, and the accuracy of the Brinkman model is lower for the samples with stronger compression-erosion effects. In addition, strategies to improve the extraction efficiency are proposed, i.e., reinforcing the broken rocks above the geothermal well, locating geothermal wells in rocks with higher fragmentation, increasing pumping pressure, and expanding the geothermal well size.