IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jeners/v17y2024i14p3466-d1434952.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Numerical Simulation of Geothermal Energy Development at Mount Meager and Its Impact on In Situ Thermal Stress

Author

Listed:
  • Yutong Chai

    (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada)

  • Zhuoheng Chen

    (Geological Survey of Canada, Natural Resources Canada, Calgary, AB T2L 2A7, Canada)

  • Shunde Yin

    (Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Waterloo, Waterloo, ON N2L 3G1, Canada)

Abstract

The Meager Mountain Geothermal Project stands as one of the pioneering geothermal energy initiatives in its early stages of resource development. Despite its abundant geothermal heat resources, no prior studies have systematically evaluated the potential of implementing coaxial borehole heat exchangers on site. This study addresses this research gap by presenting a comprehensive heat transfer model for an underground closed-loop geothermal system utilizing a single coaxial well. Finite element analysis incorporated fluid and solid heat transfer, as well as solid mechanics. The results obtained facilitated the construction of the temperature and thermal stress profiles induced by the cooling effects resulting from years of heat extraction. After 25 years of operation, the outlet temperature has reached approximately 74 °C, and the maximum radial tensile thermal stress amounts to ~47 MPa. Furthermore, the analysis demonstrates that higher fluid velocities contribute to more perturbed temperature and stress distributions. The study attained maximum thermal and electric power outputs of 208 kW and 17 kW, respectively. This research also underscores the significant impact of geothermal gradient and well length on BHE design, with longer wells yielding more power, especially at higher injection velocities.

Suggested Citation

  • Yutong Chai & Zhuoheng Chen & Shunde Yin, 2024. "Numerical Simulation of Geothermal Energy Development at Mount Meager and Its Impact on In Situ Thermal Stress," Energies, MDPI, vol. 17(14), pages 1-17, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:14:p:3466-:d:1434952
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/14/3466/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1996-1073/17/14/3466/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Walch, Alina & Mohajeri, Nahid & Gudmundsson, Agust & Scartezzini, Jean-Louis, 2021. "Quantifying the technical geothermal potential from shallow borehole heat exchangers at regional scale," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 165(P1), pages 369-380.
    2. Alimonti, C. & Soldo, E., 2016. "Study of geothermal power generation from a very deep oil well with a wellbore heat exchanger," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 292-301.
    3. Alimonti, C. & Soldo, E. & Bocchetti, D. & Berardi, D., 2018. "The wellbore heat exchangers: A technical review," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 353-381.
    4. Yutong Chai & Zhuoheng Chen & Shunde Yin, 2023. "A Preliminary Analysis of In-Situ Stress at Mount Meager by Displacement Discontinuity Method with Topography and Tectonics Considered," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-25, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. C, Alimonti & P, Conti & E, Soldo, 2019. "A comprehensive exergy evaluation of a deep borehole heat exchanger coupled with a ORC plant: the case study of Campi Flegrei," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 189(C).
    2. Sławomir Kurpaska & Mirosław Janowski & Maciej Gliniak & Anna Krakowiak-Bal & Urszula Ziemiańczyk, 2021. "The Use of Geothermal Energy to Heating Crops under Cover: A Case Study of Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-25, May.
    3. Claudio Alimonti, 2023. "Technical Performance Comparison between U-Shaped and Deep Borehole Heat Exchangers," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(3), pages 1-16, January.
    4. Wang, Yi & Zhang, Liang & Cui, Guodong & Kang, Jun & Ren, Shaoran, 2019. "Geothermal development and power generation by circulating water and isobutane via a closed-loop horizontal well from hot dry rocks," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 136(C), pages 909-922.
    5. Theo Renaud & Lehua Pan & Hannah Doran & Gioia Falcone & Patrick G. Verdin, 2021. "Numerical Analysis of Enhanced Conductive Deep Borehole Heat Exchangers," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(12), pages 1-21, June.
    6. Theo Renaud & Patrick G. Verdin & Gioia Falcone, 2020. "Conjugated Numerical Approach for Modelling DBHE in High Geothermal Gradient Environments," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(22), pages 1-18, November.
    7. Tang, Hewei & Xu, Boyue & Hasan, A. Rashid & Sun, Zhuang & Killough, John, 2019. "Modeling wellbore heat exchangers: Fully numerical to fully analytical solutions," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 1124-1135.
    8. Gola, Gianluca & Di Sipio, Eloisa & Facci, Marina & Galgaro, Antonio & Manzella, Adele, 2022. "Geothermal deep closed-loop heat exchangers: A novel technical potential evaluation to answer the power and heat demands," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 198(C), pages 1193-1209.
    9. Sharma, P. & Al Saedi, A.Q. & Kabir, C.S., 2020. "Geothermal energy extraction with wellbore heat exchanger: Analytical model and parameter evaluation to optimize heat recovery," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 166(C), pages 1-8.
    10. Cassina, Lisa & Laloui, Lyesse & Rotta Loria, Alessandro F., 2022. "Thermal interactions among vertical geothermal borehole fields," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 194(C), pages 1204-1220.
    11. Kurnia, Jundika C. & Putra, Zulfan A. & Muraza, Oki & Ghoreishi-Madiseh, Seyed Ali & Sasmito, Agus P., 2021. "Numerical evaluation, process design and techno-economic analysis of geothermal energy extraction from abandoned oil wells in Malaysia," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 175(C), pages 868-879.
    12. Hu, Xincheng & Banks, Jonathan & Wu, Linping & Liu, Wei Victor, 2020. "Numerical modeling of a coaxial borehole heat exchanger to exploit geothermal energy from abandoned petroleum wells in Hinton, Alberta," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 148(C), pages 1110-1123.
    13. Li, Xiang & Yilmaz, Selin & Patel, Martin K. & Chambers, Jonathan, 2023. "Techno-economic analysis of fifth-generation district heating and cooling combined with seasonal borehole thermal energy storage," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 285(C).
    14. Nian, Yong-Le & Cheng, Wen-Long, 2018. "Insights into geothermal utilization of abandoned oil and gas wells," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 44-60.
    15. Yujiang He & Xianbiao Bu, 2020. "Performance of Hybrid Single Well Enhanced Geothermal System and Solar Energy for Buildings Heating," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(10), pages 1-10, May.
    16. Alimonti, C. & Soldo, E. & Bocchetti, D. & Berardi, D., 2018. "The wellbore heat exchangers: A technical review," Renewable Energy, Elsevier, vol. 123(C), pages 353-381.
    17. Melikoglu, Mehmet, 2017. "Geothermal energy in Turkey and around the World: A review of the literature and an analysis based on Turkey's Vision 2023 energy targets," Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 485-492.
    18. Luka Perković & Domagoj Leko & Amalia Lekić Brettschneider & Hrvoje Mikulčić & Petar S. Varbanov, 2021. "Integration of Photovoltaic Electricity with Shallow Geothermal Systems for Residential Microgrids: Proof of Concept and Techno-Economic Analysis with RES2GEO Model," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(7), pages 1-21, March.
    19. Christopher S. Brown & Hannah Doran & Isa Kolo & David Banks & Gioia Falcone, 2023. "Investigating the Influence of Groundwater Flow and Charge Cycle Duration on Deep Borehole Heat Exchangers for Heat Extraction and Borehole Thermal Energy Storage," Energies, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-22, March.
    20. Sean M. Watson & Gioia Falcone & Rob Westaway, 2020. "Repurposing Hydrocarbon Wells for Geothermal Use in the UK: The Onshore Fields with the Greatest Potential," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(14), pages 1-29, July.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jeners:v:17:y:2024:i:14:p:3466-:d:1434952. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.