Assessment of geothermal application for electricity production from the prairie evaporite formation of Williston Basin in South-West Manitoba

In this thesis, the potential of enhanced geothermal system to provide adequate energy to a 10 MW electricity power plant from Prairie Evaporite Formation of Williston Basin was investigated. This formation partly consists of halite with low thermal resistance and high thermal conductivity, which tr...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Firoozy, Niloofar
Other Authors: Holländer, Hartmut (Civil Engineering)
Published: 13th International UFZ-Deltares Conference on Sustainable Use and Management of Soil, Sediment and Water Resources 2016
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1993/31898
Description
Summary:In this thesis, the potential of enhanced geothermal system to provide adequate energy to a 10 MW electricity power plant from Prairie Evaporite Formation of Williston Basin was investigated. This formation partly consists of halite with low thermal resistance and high thermal conductivity, which translates into a lower drilling length to reach the desired temperature, comparing to other rock types. To this end, two numerical models with experimental data in south-west Manitoba (i.e. Tilston) and south-east Saskatchewan (i.e. Generic) were designed. The thermal reservoirs were located at 1.5 km (Tilston site) and 3 km (Generic site) with approximate thicknesses of 118 m. Considering an injection brine of 6% NaCl at 15°C, the final derived temperature at wellhead of the production wells were 43°C and 105°C respectively. Finally, the Generic site was concluded as a suitable candidate for electricity production by providing higher surfaced fluid temperature than the minimum of 80°C. === February 2017