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Barite Scale Control at the Soultz-Sous-Forêts (France) EGS Site

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Barite Scale Control at the Soultz-Sous-Forêts (France) EGS Site PROCEEDINGS, Thirty-Eighth Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering Stanford University, Stanford, California, February 24-26, 2014 SGP-TR-202 Barite Scale Control at the Soultz-sous-Forêts (France) EGS Site Julia Scheiber1, Andrea Seibt2, Johannes Birner3, Nicolas Cuenot1, Albert Genter1 and Wilfried Moeckes1 1GEIE, “Exploitation Minière de la Chaleur”, Route de Soultz, 67250 Kutzenhausen, France [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] 2BWG Geochemische Beratung GmbH, Seestraße 7A, 17033 Neubrandenburg, Germany [email protected] 3GTN Geothermie Neubrandenburg GmbH, Seestraße 7A, 17033 Neubrandenburg, Germany [email protected] Keywords: barite, scaling, NORM, radiation protection, scale inhibitor, EGS ABSTRACT Scale formation in the surface and subsurface installations of the Soultz geothermal power plant affect negatively operational performance of the geothermal cycle. The Soultz EGS site operates a naturally fractured granitic reservoir percolated by Na-Ca-Cl brine with Total Dissolved Solids (TDS) up to 100 g/l. Geothermal brine is produced at 160°C/20 bars and re-injected at 70°C/18 bars. For power production, an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) is installed which includes three heat exchanger units, one evaporator and two preheaters. The heat transfer in this binary cycle is limited continuously by formation of scales in the tubular heat exchangers. Due to the temperature decrease of 90 K in the ORC heat exchanger system, strontium rich barite (Ba0.6Sr0.4SO4) becomes oversaturated and forms a homogenous scaling layer. Additionally, minor amounts of sulfide minerals like galena (PbS) are present. Those scales form an insulation layer inside of the heat exchanger tubes and decreases thereby efficiency of the heat transfer between geothermal and organic fluid. In consequence, cleaning operations for scale removal are required in regular time intervals to keep up efficiency of energy production. During cleaning and disposal operations, strict regulations for safety at work have to be followed due to radiation-protection regulations. The scales have to be classified as NORM (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material) related to the presence of 226Ra and 210Pb, incorporated by chemical substitution in the scales. Moreover, the inner diameter of the reinjection wells decrease slowly but continuously by deposition of scales. Recently, well loggings proofed the existence of a progressing precipitation front inside of the injection wells versus depth which can reach the open-hole section as a function of injected brine volume and brine temperature. For reasons of safety at work and long-term power plant operation, the formation of barite needs to be inhibited continuously. Therefore, several inhibitors, based on phosphonic-acid, were tested in laboratory experiments. These studies included tests for calcium tolerance, effectiveness and dose rate adjustment by tube blocking tests. Out of these products, Diethylenetriaminepentakis (methylenephosphonic acid) (DTPMP), showed the best results for barite inhibition. Therefore it was selected for additional tests which investigated long-term efficiency, thermal stability and reservoir rock–inhibitor interactions. The inhibitor suppressed successfully barite formation for 24 h at 90°C in contact with reservoir rock. Geothermal fluids trapped within deep-seated fractured crystalline rocks from the Upper Rhine Valley must be carefully investigated in order to minimize scaling (sulfate, sulfide) in geothermal power plants and seriously limit the natural radioactivity associated with. At the Soultz site an inhibitor injection system was designed, installed and tested for continuously inhibitor injection and on-site efficiency tests showed very good results during short time tests. 1. INTRODUCTION The geothermal power plant of Soultz-sous-Forêts is located in the NE of France, 50 km NE of Strasbourg, at the western rim of the Upper Rhine Graben (URG). The Graben structure was formed by a Tertiary rift system accompanied with the formation of a thermal anomaly of increased heat flow. Within the geothermal anomaly of the URG are a few areas located where the temperature gradient is even higher in comparison to surrounding areas. Temperature measurements in petroleum wells at the Pechelbronn oil field indicated one of these very local temperature anomalies to be connected to the Soultz horst, first mentioned by Haas and Hoffmann, (1929). 1400 m of sediments, clays, sands, marls, lacrustine limestone and sandstone, cover the crystalline, granitic basement at the Soultz location, Schnaebele et al. (1948). The Paleozoic granitic basement includes two different types of granite. A grey porphyritic monzo-granite to about 4500 m depth and a fine grained two-mica granite deeper. At levels above 4500 m, the fine grained two mica granite intersects part-wise the monzo-granite as dike structures. Top of the crystalline basement is highly hydrothermally altered and fractured, Genter (1989). Fractures occur either as individual fractures or in clustered zones up to 10-20 m thickness, Genter et al. (2010). Primary minerals like biotite and plagioclase show intense alteration or replacement by secondary minerals like illite, chlorite, corrensite, tosudite, geodic quartz, calcite, dolomite and sulfides as well as locally kaolinite in the well GPK-1, Genter and Traineau (1992). The Soultz-sous-Forêts project started in 1987, with the aim to develop heat exploitation of deep reservoirs in hot dry rocks (HDR) by creating an artificial deep heat exchanger in a closed environment, Gérard and Kappelmeyer (1987). Therefore, one exploration well, EPS-1, and four deep wells, GPK-1 to GPK-4, were drilled between 1987 and 2005 down to the crystalline basement of the Rhine Graben. During drilling and well testing it became obvious that native brine was circulating through the fracture network of 1 Scheiber, Seibt, Birner, Cuenot, Genter and Moeckes the naturally fractured granite, Genter and Traineau (1992), Genter et al. (2010). The original HDR design was found to be obsolete. Nevertheless, permeability of the reservoir decreased with increasing depth and the initially low permeability was improved by hydraulic and chemical stimulations, creating an Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS), Gérard et al. (2006). The power plant, equipped with an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) unit, was designed and installed between 2007 and 2009 with an estimated capacity of 2.2 MWe. During power plant operation scale formation in the surface installations was observed and was recognized as serious issue for power plant operation and safety at work. 2. SCALE FORMATION AT THE SOULTZ EGS SITE The formation of scales in the surface and subsurface installations of the Soultz geothermal power plant, is connected with circulation and cooling of geothermal brine of high salinity, 97 g/l Total Dissolved Solids, Sanjuan et al. (2010), Seibt (2011). Scale deposition is strongly connected to the cold part of the power plant due to the significant temperature decrease of 90 K from 160˚C to 70˚C in the ORC tube heat exchanger. Temperature decrease affects the saturation state of dissolved minerals in the brine and strontium rich barite (Ba0.6Sr0.4SO4) becomes oversaturated and forms thin and brittle deposits, Figure 1. Additionally, minor fractions of galena (PbS) and trace amounts of mixed sulfides ((Fe,Sb,As)Sx) are formed, Sanjuan et al. (2011), Scheiber et al. (2012) and Nitschke (2012). Fine sulfide crystals cover the dominant barite layer, Figure 2. Sulfate and sulfide scales are deposited in the heat exchanger system, inside of equipment downstream to the injection well and even inside of the injection wells. Figure 1: Scale deposits in the ORC main heat exchanger cap. Thin and brittle barite scales were flushed out of the heat exchanger tubes into the cap during operation. (Picture: GEIE, 2011) Figure 2: Electron microscope exposure of a scale cross section in the back scattered mode (BSED). A thin layer of sulfides, approximately 5-10 μm, covers the surface of the dominating barite layer, which has an average thickness of 200 μm. The deposit was sampled from the main ORC heat exchanger. Picture from Scheiber et al. (2012). Barite and galena scales at Soultz have to be classified as NORM (Naturally Occurring Radioactive Material) due to the presence of 226Ra and 210Pb, Cuenot (2013). Those radionuclides accumulate in the scales by chemical substitution of 226Ra in barite/celestine and 210Pb in galena during mineral formation, e.g. Doerner and Hoskins (1925), Ceccarello et al. (2004), Curti et al. (2010), Kudryavskii and Rakhimova (2007) and Zielinski et al. (2001). The geothermal brine takes up radionuclides by rock-fluid interaction in the reservoir by natural fluid circulation in fractured granite which is a naturally radioactive rock, Degering and Köhler (2009), Degering and Köhler (2011), Eggeling (2010) and Eggeling et al. (2013). Three serious issues are connected with the precipitation of industrial scales, classified as NORM, in the surface installations of the Soultz power plant: First, scales act as an insulation material in the tube heat exchanger which leads to a significant efficiency decrease in the heat transfer. In consequence, extensive time and cost consuming cleaning procedures had to be applied. Second, specific protection regulation for workers and for scale disposal needed to be followed due to the presence of radionuclides in the scales. Those scales are considered as radioactive
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