557results about "Collector with underground water as fluid" patented technology

There has been invented a method for producing geothermal energy using supercritical fluids for creation of the underground reservoir, production of the geothermal energy, and for heat transport. Underground reservoirs are created by pumping a supercritical fluid such as carbon dioxide into a formation to fracture the rock. Once the reservoir is formed, the same supercritical fluid is allowed to heat up and expand, then is pumped out of the reservoir to transfer the heat to a surface power generating plant or other application.

A system is disclosed for generating energy from a geothermal heat source. The system includes a fluid injection system configured for injecting fluid into a subterranean formation and a fluid extraction system configured for extracting fluid from the subterranean formation after being heated by the formation. The system further includes a heat transformer configured to receive a first fluid heated by the geothermal heat source at a first temperature and adapted to heat a second fluid to a second temperature via a series of chemical reactions. Furthermore, the system includes an energy generation unit configured to receive heated the second fluid at the second temperature from the heat transformer to increase the temperature of a third fluid which is used to generate energy.

An apparatus and a method is disclosed for storage of solar energy in a subsurface geologic reservoir. The method includes transferring concentrated solar thermal energy to a fluid, thereby generating a supercritical fluid. The supercritical fluid is then injected into the subsurface geologic reservoir through at least one injection well. The subsurface geologic reservoir may be a highly permeable and porous sedimentary strata, a depleted hydrocarbon field, a depleting hydrocarbon field, a depleted oil field, a depleting oil field, a depleted gas field, or a depleting gas field. Once charged with the supercritical fluid, the subsurface geologic formation forms a synthetic geothermal reservoir.

A directional geothermal energy system and method helps to increase control in paths to be taken by geo-fluid flow through hot rock to create engineered geothermal reservoirs and networks to mine heat from hot rock resources. The system uses directional drilling techniques to create a spanning borehole extending between an injection borehole and a production borehole. The spanning borehole typically extends through hot rock for a distance on the order of kilometers to allow the geo-fluid flowing through the spanning borehole adequate transit time and surface contact to obtain sufficient heat given a certain flow rate for the geo-fluid. In some implementations, multiple injection boreholes can supply geo-fluid to a single production borehole. Individual geo-fluid networks can be so sized, shaped, and located with respect to one another to form a collection of geo-fluid networks to mine heat from very large hot rock resources.

The present invention relates to systems and methods of intelligently extracting heat from geothermal reservoirs. One geothermal well system includes at least one injection well extending to a subterranean formation and configured to inject a working fluid into the subterranean formation to generate a heated working fluid. At least one production well extends to the subterranean formation and produces the heated working fluid from the subterranean formation. A production zone defines a plurality of production sub-zones within the subterranean formation and provides fluid communication between the at least one injection well and the at least one production well. Each production sub-zone is selectively accessed in order to extract heated working fluid therefrom and thereby provide a steady supply of heated working fluid to the surface.

An apparatus and a method is disclosed for storage of solar energy in a subsurface geologic reservoir. The method includes transferring concentrated solar thermal energy to a fluid, thereby generating a supercritical fluid. The supercritical fluid is then injected into the subsurface geologic reservoir through at least one injection well. The subsurface geologic reservoir may be a highly permeable and porous sedimentary strata, a depleted hydrocarbon field, a depleting hydrocarbon field, a depleted oil field, a depleting oil field, a depleted gas field, or a depleting gas field. Once charged with the supercritical fluid, the subsurface geologic formation forms a synthetic geothermal reservoir.

A method for utilizing gas produced from an in situ conversion process is provided. The method may include heating an organic-rich rock formation, for example an oil shale formation, in situ. The method may further include producing a production fluid from the organic-rich rock formation where the production fluid having been at least partially generated as a result of pyrolysis of formation hydrocarbons, for example oil shale, located in the organic-rich rock formation. The method may include obtaining a gas stream from the production fluid, where the gas stream comprises combustible hydrocarbon fluids. The method may include separating the gas stream into a first composition gas stream and a second composition gas stream, where the composition of the first composition gas stream is a low BTU gas stream maintained in a substantially constant condition and passing the first composition gas stream through a first gas turbine to form a first gas turbine exhaust stream, where the first gas turbine being configured to provide energy to a first electrical generator.

The invention relates to the field of geothermal exploitation and provides a method for self-circulation exploitation of geothermal energy of hot dry rock with multilateral well and volume fracturing technologies. According to the method, firstly, multilateral well holes are drilled in different depths of a reservoir of the hot dry rock, the reservoir between upper and lower multilateral well holes is fractured with the volume fracturing technology, a high-permeability hot dry rock reservoir is constructed, and finally, thermal-carrying media are injected and exploited for geothermal exploitation. Annularly-injected low-temperature thermal-carrying media flow to the fractured reservoir of the hot dry rock along the multilateral well holes in the upper part of the reservoir, flow to the multilateral well holes in the lower part under the double actions of injection pressure and potential-energy difference and finally flow back to the ground along an oil pipe. According to the method, the multilateral well and fracturing technologies are sufficiently utilized, the reservoirs of the hot dry rock are effectively communicated, the problem about crack communication during conventional double-well fracturing for injection and exploitation is solved, the potential-energy difference in different depths can be further effectively utilized, and the flowing capability of the thermal-carrying media is greatly improved. With the use of the thermal insulation oil pipe, the thermal loss in the exploitation process of the thermal-carrying media is further reduced, and the exploitation efficiency of geothermal energy is improved.

The invention relates to a field of geothermal energy development and provides a method for exploiting compact dry heat rock geothermal energy by utilizing a long horizontal well self-circulation structure. According to the invention, a single long horizontal well in a dry heat rock storage layer is utilized, an oil pipe-loop empty circulation structure of the single long horizontal well is adopted under a condition of not cracking the dry heat rock storage layer for performing circulation injection and production of heat carrying medium. During the injection process, a horizontal segment can be utilized fully for heating the heat carrying medium. During a production process, a prestress heat isolation oil tube is used for reducing heat loss of the heat carrying medium by using the prestress heat isolation oil tube. According to the invention, fluid loss caused by cracking can be avoided and the contact area of a well shaft and the storage layer is increased effectively due to the long horizontal segment. During the injection and production process, the temperature difference of the heat carrying medium also causes heat siphonage, so that ground injection and suction pump power is reduced effectively. At the same time, due to the closeness of the long horizontal well self-circulation structure, condition is provided for performance optimization of the heat carrying medium and problems of corrosion and scale formation are avoided and the heat collecting process becomes more reliable and stable.

A double-pipe geothermal water circulating apparatus including an outer pipe having a geothermal water supplying strainer for infiltrating geothermal water from an aquifer and a geothermal water returning strainer for returning used geothermal water to the aquifer, a thermal insulation inner pipe composed of a thermal insulator that forms a flow channel with the outer pipe, a pump for pumping the geothermal water from the thermal insulation inner pipe, a heat source supplying force feed pipe for force-feeding pumped geothermal water to an heat exchanger and a heat source reusing pipe connected to the flow channel for returning the used geothermal water to the aquifer. Also, the double-pipe geothermal water circulating apparatus is provided therein with the flow channel from the geothermal water returning strainer to the geothermal water supplying strainer that is not separated, whereby geothermal water can flow therethrough.

The invention provides a building method for an artificial dry-hot-rock geothermal reservoir and belongs to the field of artificial dry-hot-rock geothermal reservoir building. According to the technical scheme, the method includes the steps that supercritical carbon dioxide fracturing is conducted on the soft weak face or an interlayer formed along the igneous rock phase to generate a major crack, then large displacement of hydrofracturing is conducted on the interior of the major crack to generate secondary fracturing, bulk fracturing or cluster type fracturing of a dry hot rock body is generated under cyclic fracturing, and the artificial geothermal reservoir is built. The building method has the beneficial effects that the characteristics of low viscosity and easy diffusion of the supercritical carbon dioxide and the characteristic that the crack is easy to form due to the fact that the fracturing pressure of igneous rock under supercritical carbon dioxide fracturing is low are fully utilized; and in combination with the characteristics that the igneous rock is of the obvious rock phase structure and thermal fracturing is easy to generate, the problems that current hydrofracturing cannot be implemented to building of the artificial geothermal reservoir in a deep rock mass, the fracturing pressure is large, the crack group or the crack band of an ideal structure is difficult to form, and an artificial geothermal reservoir stratum is particularly difficult to build are solved.

A modular energy harvesting system. The system preferably uses an organic Rankine cycle heat engine to recover energy from relatively low-temperature heat sources. The system is both modular and scalable. The components are preferably housed within shipping containers so that they may be easily transported by sea and over land. Two or more power harvesting modules may be assembled on a single site to increase the production capacity in a scalar fashion. Each of the integrated units preferably includes an oil-less turbine and motor.

Methods and systems for extracting geothermal energy from an underground hot dry rock reservoir using supercritical carbon dioxide are disclosed. In a first step, the methods and systems utilize a heat exchanger in a binary system to heat a secondary fluid that is used to perform work. In a second step, the supercritical carbon dioxide is transferred to a pseudo turbine (e.g., a free-piston linear engine) to perform additional work through expansion.

A system for generating electrical energy using a naturally occurring temperature difference is disclosed. The system provides electrical energy by thermally coupling a conduit that conveys hot material from a petroleum reserve and cold deep-level water to opposing sides of a thermoelectric element. The thermoelectric element generates electrical energy based on the temperature difference between these two surfaces.

A method is provided for in-situ production of oil shale, gas via gas (methane) hydrates and gas shale, and steam via geothermal formations wherein a network of fractures is formed by injecting liquified gases into at least one substantially horizontally disposed fracturing borehole. Thereafter, heat can be applied to liquefy the kerogen or to dissociate the gas (methane) hydrates so that oil shale oil and / or gases can be recovered from the fractured formations.

The invention provides a system for adapting an HVAC system in an existing building for utilizing geothermal energy, the system comprising an incoming flux of geothermal energy; a plurality of heat exchange surfaces adapted to receive the incoming flux of geothermal energy; and an interface between the HVAC system and the heat exchange surfaces, said interface adapted to transfer the geothermal energy to the system. Also provided is a method for repairing aberrations in drill borings, the method comprising using a rotary mud drill system to produce a drill hole up to the location of the aberrations; removing the rotary mud drill from the drill hole; inserting an auger into the drill hole to a point directly above the location of the aberrations; actuating the auger; introducing loose substrate into the drill hole; allowing the substrate to contact the auger; and lifting and lowering the auger along longitudinally extending regions of the drill hole defining the aberrations for a time and in substrate amounts sufficient to fill the aberrations. The invention also provides a system which facilitates rotating drill bits at an rpm which are multiples faster than their associated drill strings.

The invention relates to the field of geothermal exploitation and provides a method for exploring dry-hot-rock geotherm through underground heat siphon self-circulation. The method includes the steps that a heat-carrying medium circular flowing channel is built underground, and self-circulation flowing of the heat-carrying medium in the underground channel is achieved by fully utilizing the phenomenon of heat siphon caused by the density difference of the heat-carrying medium at various temperature differences. The circular flowing channel can be achieved by drilling two horizontal well holes in different depth positions of an injection and production well, and can also be achieved by fracturing fractures and an upper horizontal well hole of the well bottom injection and production well. The heat-carrying medium flowing in a circulating mode drives a turbine generator to rotate for power generation in the flowing process, and accordingly the dry-hot-rock geothermal energy is explored as electric energy. According to the method, the heat siphon phenomenon of the heat-carrying fluid is fully utilized, underground self-circulation flowing is achieved, extra power from the outside is not needed, and the method is suitable for geothermal exploration of dry-hot-rock reservoirs with high reservoir temperature and severe ground environment.

A method and system of producing hydrocarbons from a hydrocarbon containing subterranean hydrate reservoir is disclosed. Waste heat is captured and transferred to a hydrocarbon bearing hydrate formation to dissociate hydrates into natural gas and water. The waste heat can be heat generated from surface facilities such as a Gas To Liquids (GTL) plant, a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant, an electric or power generation plant, and an onshore or offshore facility producing other conventional or unconventional hydrocarbons from a subterranean reservoir. Alternatively, the waste heat can be obtained from subterranean reservoirs such as hydrocarbon containing producing wells and geothermal wells producing heated water.

A geothermal loop in-ground heat exchanger for energy extraction including an outer tubular casing and an inner tubular portion spaced from the outer tubular casing to define an injection space wherein a working fluid is injected into the injection space at a first temperature, T1 while the heat exchanger is located in a geothermal heat reservoir and the working fluid exits through the inner tubular portion at a second temperature, T2 which is greater than T1.

The invention discloses a simulation experiment device used for an enhanced geothermal system and a method for evaluating porous sandstone geothermal reconstruction by means of the simulation experiment device. The simulation experiment device comprises a heat exchanger chamber, a prefabricated rock, an electric heating panel, a constant-temperature liquid supply groove, two liquid colleting grooves and horizontal geostress simulation units, wherein an inlet and two outlets corresponding to the inlet are formed in the heat exchange chamber, and the inlet and the outlets all communicate with a cavity; and the prefabricated rock is arranged in the cavity, a first injection shaft, a first production shaft and a second production shaft are further arranged in the prefabricated rock, the injection shaft is located between the first production shaft and the second production shaft, the injection shaft communicates with the inlet, the first production shaft and the second production shaft communicate with the two outlets correspondingly, and preset seams, micro pressure sensors and micro temperature sensors are arranged in the prefabricated rock.

Methods and systems for producing thermal or electrical power from geothermal wells. Power is produced from a working fluid circulating in a closed loop within a geothermal well. Geothermal steam or brine at depth transfers heat at higher temperature than at the surface to the working fluid. The working fluid is then used to produce power directly or indirectly. The geothermal production fluid may be stimulated through use of gas lifting or submersible pumps to assist in bringing such fluids to the surface or through the use blockers to encourage the downhole steam advection and brine recirculation through the resource in a connective loop. The working fluid may be compatible with existing direct heat or power generation equipment; i.e., water for flash plants or hydrocarbons / refrigerants for binary plants.

A method and system of producing hydrocarbons from a hydrocarbon containing subterranean hydrate reservoir is disclosed. Waste heat is captured and transferred to a hydrocarbon bearing hydrate formation to dissociate hydrates into natural gas and water. The waste heat can be heat generated from surface facilities such as a Gas To Liquids (GTL) plant, a Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) plant, an electric or power generation plant, and an onshore or offshore facility producing other conventional or unconventional hydrocarbons from a subterranean reservoir. Alternatively, the waste heat can be obtained from subterranean reservoirs such as hydrocarbon containing producing wells and geothermal wells producing heated water.

An electrical equipment cabinet coupled to a closed loop in turn coupled to a groundwater source for exchanging heat energy with the closed loop for air-conditioning the interior of the electrical equipment cabinet. In the absence of a groundwater source a slinky loop is used as a substitute. The slinky loop is buried in the ground or located in a body of water located on or below ground.

Systems and methods for producing energy from a geothermal formation are disclosed. A heat exchanger can be disposed within a well to absorb heat from a geothermal formation. The heat exchanger can besupported within the well using a high thermal conductivity material. The heat exchanger is connected to an organic Rankine cycle engine including a secondary heat exchanger and a turbine. The primary and secondary heat transfer fluids are chosen to maximize efficiency of the organic Rankine cycle.

A system comprises an injection well in communication with an underground reservoir containing a native methane-containing solution at a first temperature, a production well in communication with the reservoir, a supply system providing a non-water based working fluid to the injection well at a second temperature lower than the first temperature, wherein exposure of the working fluid to the native fluid causes a portion of methane to come out of solution to form a production fluid of at least a portion of the working fluid and the portion of methane, and exposure to the first temperatures heats the production fluid to a third temperature higher than the second temperature, wherein the heated production fluid enters the production well, and an energy recovery apparatus in communication with the productions well for converting energy in the production fluid to electricity, heat, or a combination thereof.