Fp7: Energy (Finland)

Contact

Mr. Vicente Carabias-Hütter, EU-research contact / Prof. Dr. Erich Renner, Head of Institute
Zurcher Hochschule Winterthur
Institute for Sustainable Development (ine-ZHW)
Technopark/Jägerstrasse 2
P.O. Box 805
CH-8401 Winterthur
Phone [phone] or [phone]
Fax [phone]
[e-mail] / [e-mail]
www.ine.zhwin.ch
FP7: Energy (Slovenia, 26.03.)

Funding Source/Programme

Project name: “Integrated geothermal underground 3W gas- and scaling-less system’’

Project acronym: “BUBBLE-3W’’

1 Basic information of the call

• Specific programme : ENERGY.2007.4.3.2: Improved underground systems

• Thematic priority/domain: GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
• Call title: Energy Call Part 2
• Call identifier: FP7-ENERGY-2007-2-TREN
• Date of publication: 22 December 2006
• Closure date: 3 May 2007 at 17:00 (Brussels local time)
• Total indicative budget 128 million EUR from the 2007 budget
• The cost of each partner activity will be founded at level between 50% and 100%, depends on the type of activity and organization.

2 Project background

On the extensive Panonian area and other areas around Europe, two different types of thermo

mineral water for production and exploitation are available:

- high mineralized thermal water (“black water”)

- low mineralized thermal water (“white water”)

Especially “Black water” presents a serious problem for the production, because it contains a lot of dissolved minerals and natural gases that are separating from thermo mineral water during the production. Two main issues are present:

• emission of free natural gases in the air (CO2, CH, H2S),
• scaling on the production-transportation system.

These facts cause a lot of technical and environmental problems, for instance:

• interruptions in production,
• potential threat of explosion (CH-gases), poisoning (H2S) and suffocation (CO2),
• release of high mineralized thermal water on surface, where the re-injection well doesn’t exist,
• emission of gases in atmosphere,
• decrease of the reservoir pressure
• and many others.

Some of the issues can be solved by injection of inhibitors which is removing only the problem of scaling. The second solution would be to keep the production and transportation system above the bubble point pressure. This solution is expensive and still doesn’t remove all issues mentioned above.

The system we propose in a BUBBLE-3W integrated underground system, which is a unique and innovative solution based on a construction of a special 3W well and underground production components where all exchanging heat process would take place deep below the surface, above the bubble point pressure.

The BUBBLE-3W geothermal well is based on one main well head leading down to the level of bubble point pressure, where all production equipment is placed. The system is constructed of three underground sub-wells:

• production sub-well,
• re-injection sub-well and
• observation sub-well.

By construction of BUBBLE-3W integrated underground system, it will be possible:

• to produce thermo mineral water from production sub-well,
• exchange the heat in underground heat exchanger (above bubble point pressure),
• re-inject a thermo mineral water into production reservoir through a re-injection subwell
• and to observe the pressure and temperatures in production reservoir using observation subwell.

The Water in 3W system will not be pumped on the surface through the primary circle, but only up to underground heat exchanger. The underground heat exchanger is located on a depth where the pressure is above bobble point level and this assures that there will be no separation of natural gas and scaling. Acquired thermo mineral water will return to production reservoir from production sub-well through re-injection sub-well, after exploiting the energy with underground heat exchanger. With this innovative approach all environmental problems regarding the production of energy on the basis of thermo mineral water will be solved.

In addition, with production and re-injection of thermo mineral water there are also the possibilities to observe pressure and temperature in observation sub-well. This is the key for optimized and controlled exploitation of a geothermal energy, where overall control over geothermal system and energy potential of production reservoir is assured.

The BUBBLE-3W project is a unique and innovative project based on a vast experience of a project consortium. Successful development and implementation of BUBBLE-3W system is going to assure a positive impact on exploitation of geothermal energy thus becoming a serious alternative, renewable, environmental clean energy source.

3 Key expected outcome

The key expected outcome of the project is to develop and present a unique and innovative underground system for the industrial use. The 3W system will provide the solution and equipment necessary to avoid the severe problem of gas separation and scaling by production of geothermal water above the bubble point pressure and foster the use of geothermal energy in different applications with increased efficiency, lower initial investment and maintenance costs, without any influence to the environment. The system will be tested in a real environment and will provide valuable information for industrial applications where the problem of gas separation and scaling exists.

The aim of this project is to prove and explore if we can provide the underground solution which would guarantee virtually no environmental impact and provide sufficient investment and cost reduction. Moreover, the implementation and deployment of the solution will be geographically independent.

4 Main objectives

• to develop and present a unique and innovative integrated underground 3W system for geothermal energy production above the bubble point pressure,

• to foster the industrial exploitation of wells with high level of gas content in thermo mineral water,
• to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by preventing their separation from thermo mineral water,
• to improve the energy efficiency with regards to the classical geothermal well method,
• to accelerate the penetration of geothermal energy sources by assuring lower investment and maintenance costs and faster return on investment.

5 Other objectives

• environmental objectives

- by assuring the exploitation of geothermal water above the level of bubble point the industrial use of geothermal energy in severe environmental conditions and surroundings thus avoiding it’s effect on environment will be possible,
- the system will be based on one well on the surface with three sub-wells (instead of three wells on three different locations), which is assuring the minimum possible affect and use of surrounding,
- by providing the closed underground water loop the verified system which is in conformity to all legal environmental laws and acts will be provided.

• technical objectives

- to improve the existing production equipment used in classical geothermal systems and develop a new components which will be tested and exploited in a new and unique 3W underground systems, like heat exchangers, submersible pumps, filters, …,
- to improve the technology of drilling and completion of the 3W common well,
- by assuring the production of geothermal energy above the bubble point the scaling will be avoided, which will extend the lifetime of production equipment substantially.

• economical objectives

- to reduce the geothermal investment costs based on the fact that the new and unique underground system will allow the production with only one well and one submersible pump, with reduced quantity of pipelines and additional components,
- by avoiding the scaling issue, service and maintenance costs of the system will be reduced,
- 3W underground system will decrease the operational costs, especially electricity consumption for submersible pumps,
- to accelerate cost-effectiveness and competitiveness of geothermal energy.

6 Deliverables of the project

The main deliverable of the BUBBLE-3W project is the underground system with its components and equipment. Research and development results and analysis will be distributed and disseminated accordingly.

7 Work packages

Proposed project work packages are following:

- underground system planning and investigation
- test polygon planning and analysis
- underground system development
system of underground heat exchanger, submersible pumps and filters
underground fastening and releasing system
sealing (packing) system
telemetry and control over the underground system and it’s components
- Implementation of the system and testing
- Dissemination of the results
- Project management

8 Potential partners (TBC)

• Nafta-Geoterm (Slovenia)

• Sava d.d. (Slovenia)
• Geo-log (Madžarska)
• Crosco (Croatia)
• Velin (Croatia)
• Naravoslovno tehniška Fakulteta v Ljubljani (Slovenia)
• IRGO (Slovenia)
• RGN (Croatia)

9 Other information

Final project organization will be defined after the participation of all partners is confirmed. In order to prepare the proposal, partners needs to deliver the following information:

• A presentation of the company, the structure of the company, your experience, background and facilities (max. 1 page);
• Proposal for cooperation in the project or proposal for expanding the project with the intention to include your company as a partner. Please note, that the project is still in the proposal phase, therefore additional proposals are possible and appreciated.