Assessment of Geothermal Resources in China
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PROCEEDINGS, Thirty-Eighth Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering Stanford University, Stanford, California, February11-13, 2013 SGP-TR-198 ASSESSMENT OF GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES IN CHINA Guiling Wang1, Kewen Li2, Dongguang Wen3, Wenjing Lin1, Liangjun Lin3, Zhiming Liu1, Wei Zhang1, Feng Ma1, Wanli Wang1 1Institute of Hydrological and Environmental Geology, CAGS 2College of Energy, China University of Geosciences, Beijing 3China Geological Survey, Beijing e-mail: [email protected] according to hydrothermal transmission mode. Most ABSTRACT frequently, geothermal resources are classified by the temperature of resources: high-temperature (the The geological features of the geothermal resources in China have been analyzed firstly. The geothermal temperature is ≥150℃), intermediate-temperature resources were then characterized of different (the temperature is <150℃ and ≥90℃) and low- categories such as shallow, sedimentary basins, temperature geothermal resources (the temperature is apophysis mountains, and hot dry rocks (potentially for enhanced geothermal systems, EGS). The <90℃). Furthermore, geothermal resources of potential geothermal resources of different types in apophysis mountains type can be divided into China have been assessed on the basis of the volcano type, non-volcano type and deep-recycle geological analysis by using different methods and type according to heat source, structure and other models. The results of the geothermal resources in comprehensive conditions. And sedimentary basin China are summarized. The key cities of China have geothermal resources can be divided into graben shallow geothermal resources of about 2.78×1020J, of basins and down-warped basins according to tectonic which approximately 2.89×1012kWh might be property of the basins. The geothermal resource types utilized annually. The geothermal resource in the ranked by temperature in the main sedimentary main sedimentary basins of China is about 2.5×1022J, basins of China (mainland only in this study) are and the quantity of allowable exploitation is close to shown in Figure 1. 7.5×1021J. The total heat discharged from the hot spring areas is roughly 1.32×1017J, and the exploitable resource is about 6.6×1017J/year. The geothermal resources in hot dry rocks (or EGS) areas at a depth of 3.0-10.0km in mainland China is around 2.52×1025J. The geothermal energy is equivalent to 5300 times of China's current annual total energy consumption (2010: 95.2×1018J) if only 2% of the EGS resources can be recovered. FEATURES OF GEOTHERMAL RESOURCES IN CHINA Category of Geothermal Resources Figure 1: Simplified map of Geothermal Resources in Geothermal resources can be divided into different China (modified from Chen et al., 1996). types by geothermal reservoir rock types, geological (The abbreviations of Basins are: SL, Songliao; NC, genesis and hydrothermal transmission mode (Chen North China; NJ, North Jiangsu; JH, Jianghan; ED, et al., 1996; Tian et al., 2006). According to the rock Erdos; SC, Sichuan; YM, Yumen; TH, Tuha; JG, types of geothermal reservoirs, geothermal resources Jungar; TR, Tarim and QD, Qaidam.) can be divided into porous type, fracture type, and karst fracture geothermal resources. According to Several categories of geothermal resources were geological genesis, they can be categorized as evaluated in the 1970’s by the U.S. Geological sedimentary basins and apophysis mountains Survey (White and Williams, 1975; Muffler, 1979). geothermal resources. They can also be divided into Tester et al. (2006) considered all the aspects of EGS conductive and convective geothermal resources development from resource base to the environmental effects. Based on the analysis of current classification northern Songliao Basin, northern Suzhou, Bohai approaches to geothermal resource, we divided the Bay Basin and Haier Basin. The average value was geothermal resources of China into four major 55~80mW/m2. The third important areas with categories with the consideration of geological relatively high heat flow were Tarim Basin, Junggar features, hydrothermal transmission mode, and Basin in Xinjiang, northern Sichuan Basin, northern resource temperature, etc. These include sedimentary Songliao Basin and Three-River Basin. These are basins geothermal resources, apophysis mountains cold basins with an average value of 30~50mW/m2. geothermal resources, shallow geothermal resources and hot dry rocks resources. The geothermal gradient of the sedimentary basins in China was in the range of 1.5~4.0℃/m with an Features of Geothermal Resources average value of 3.2℃/m, which is controlled by Geothermal resources are extensively distributed in China with diverse categories and rich capacity. thermal alteration of the centrosphere and the heat However, they are not distributed evenly due to the conductivity of the stratum medium. Compared with effects of tectonic, magmatic activity, stratum terrestrial heat flow, geothermal gradient was lithology and hydrogeology conditions (Chen et al., influenced by regional geotectures and correlated 1994). Geothermal resources in China include high- closely with the stratum lithology and structure, temperature type, but mainly low-temperature and which formed the different trends of geothermal intermediate-temperature geothermal resources. gradient and terrestrial heat flow. The maximum Meanwhile, high-temperature geothermal resources values of geothermal gradient in sedimentary basins are mainly distributed in southern Tibet, western were mainly distributed in Yunnan Tengchong, Beibu Yunnan, western Sichuan and Taiwan provinces, and Gulf Basin, Xiamen and Shantou, most areas of over 200 high-temperature geothermal systems have North China Plain (the south part), the extreme south been found. Intermediate and low-temperature part of the Bohai Sea and Tianjin, Hailar Basin, west geothermal resources are mainly distributed in the of Qaidam Basin and Songliao Basin. The values of fault zone of large sedimentary basins and mountains. geothermal gradients in these areas were in the range Those resources distributed in the fault zone of of 3.0~4.0℃/m, constituting about 1/10 of the total mountains are generally smaller. Those distributed in areas of all sedimentary basins in the whole country. the basins, especially in large sedimentary basins, are The geothermal gradientsi n most of the sedimentary generally characteristic of good reservoir conditions, basins ranged from 2.0 to 3.0℃/m, the rest was multiple and thick reservoirs, and extensive distributions. The temperature rises with the depth below 2.0℃/m. These areas are mainly distributed in and the geothermal resources are great, which makes Tarim Basin, part of Junggar Basin and the northwest these areas become the greatest potential targets for part of Sichuan Basin (Chen et al., 1988; Qiu et al., exploring geothermal resources. 2004). The geothermal reservoir temperature at a specific Distribution of Geothermal Resources depth can be calculated according to terrestrial heat flow, geothermal gradient and surface temperature. Hot dry rock is almost distributed all around the Generally, the stronger the tectonic activity or the world, covering almost all of the continents (Tester smaller the formation-heat event is, the higher the and others, 2006; Blackwell et al., 2006). heat flow values are. The heat flow values of the Nevertheless, those new volcano active regions or ancient blocks with stable geological structures are areas with thin crust, which are mainly located at the comparatively lower. Based on the heat flow values edge of plate or earth structure, have the greatest collected all around the country (810 in total), the potential for exploring and using hot dry rock. average value of national heat flow in China was about 62.7 mW/m2. The distribution of the geothermal resources in China had similar trends, with obvious regularity and The values of the terrestrial heat flow in China are regionality. The main areas are located in eastern distributed unevenly. Overall, southern Tibet, the China, southeast coast, Taiwan, graben basin around Western Taiwan Basin, Yongtai and Nanjing Basin in Ordos, southern Tibet, western Sichuan and western Xiamen had the highest values. The average value Yunnan. was 100~150mW/m2. Locally, the value was up to 304mW/m2. The second important areas with high Sedimentary basin geothermal resources are mainly heat flow were Yanghu Basin and Qianghu Basin in distributed in eastern China, Qionglei Basin, northern Tibet, Ordos Basin, Sichuan Basin, coastal Songliao Basin and graben basin around Ordos, they basin in southern China, south part of northern China, are all intermediate and low-temperature geothermal resources. Calculation of resource capacity Apophysis mountains geothermal resources are Capacity of the shallow geothermal resource is the mainly distributed in southeast coast, Taiwan, product of the specific thermal capacity of the southern Tibet, western Sichuan, western Yunnan geothermal reservoir and the available temperature and Jiaoliao peninsula. Among these, high difference in the assessed area. The recoverable temperature geothermal resources are mainly resource should consider the area coefficient of urban distributed in southern Tibet, western Yunnan, building, recoverable coefficient of the shallow western Sichuan and Taiwan, while intermediate and geothermal energy and the utilization coefficient. The low-temperature geothermal resources are mainly formula is expressed as follow: distributed in other areas (Chen et al., 1994).