Abstract

In my presentation, I will start with the introduction of a geothermal well doublet that is currently being installed on the campus of Delft University of Technology. The first part of the project has been successfully completed by the end of 2023 and the first energy production is planned in late 2024. The research questions in this project relate to field-scale geothermal operations, e.g. how reliable is the long-term energy production, how do materials perform in the long-term and how can geothermal projects be best monitored? The project includes a comprehensive research program, involving the installation of a wide range of instruments alongside an extensive logging and coring program and monitoring network. Fiber-optic cables will monitor both wells down to the reservoir section, at approximately 2300m depth, in the Lower Cretaceous Delft Sandstone that is used as a geothermal reservoir in a series of existing and planned doublets in the Netherlands. A local seismic monitoring network has been installed in the surrounding area with the aim of monitoring very low-magnitude natural or induced seismicity. A vertical observation well with electromagnetic sensors will be drilled in a few years’ time between the injector and producer to monitor cold-front propagation. All observations will be included in the digital-twin framework which will allow us to make better decisions in future geothermal projects. In the second part of my talk, I will describe existing modelling capabilities designed for this and similar projects and present initial modelling for the TU Delft Campus project.

Bio

Dr. Denis Voskov is an Associate Professor at the Department of Geoscience and Engineering, TU Delft, and an Adjunct Professor at the Department of Energy, Science and Engineering, Stanford University. He is leading a research group on the development of advanced simulation capability for energy transition applications which includes geothermal, CO2 sequestration and hydrogen storage. Denis is a co-author of more than 60 peer-reviewed journal publications and many conference papers on this topic. Before joining TU Delft, he was a Senior Researcher at the Department of Energy Recourses Engineering at Stanford University. His previous positions also include Chief Technology Officer of Rock Flow Dynamics Company (developer of t.Navigator), Chief Engineer at YUKOS EP company, and a leading specialist at the Institute for Problems in Mechanics, Russian Academy of Sciences. He holds a Ph.D. degree in applied mathematics from Gubkin’s Russian State University of Oil and Gas. Denis is an Executive Editor of the Geoenergy Science and Engineering Journal and Associate Editor of the Society of Petroleum Engineers Journal.

References

X. Tian, O. Volkov, and D. Voskov. “An advanced inverse modeling framework for efficient and flexible adjoint-based history matching of geothermal fields”. Geothermics 116 (2024). doi: 10.1016/j. geothermics.2023.102849.

M. Major, A. Daniilidis, T. M. Hansen, M. Khait, and D. Voskov. “Influence of process-based, stochastic and deterministic methods for representing heterogeneity in fluvial geothermal systems”. Geothermics 109 (2023). doi: 10.1016/j.geothermics.2023.102651.

Y. Wang, D. Voskov, A. Daniilidis, M. Khait, S. Saeid, and D. Bruhn. “Uncertainty quantification in a heterogeneous fluvial sandstone reservoir using GPU-based Monte Carlo simulation”. Geothermics 114 (2023). doi: 10.1016/j.geothermics.2023.102773.

Y. Wang, D. Voskov, M. Khait, S. Saeid, and D. Bruhn. “Influential factors on the development of a low-enthalpy geothermal reservoir: A sensitivity study of a realistic field”. Renewable Energy 179 (2021), 641 – 651. doi: 10.1016/j.renene.2021.07.017.

Y. Wang, D. Voskov, M. Khait, and D. Bruhn. “An efficient numerical simulator for geothermal simulation: A benchmark study”. Applied Energy 264 (2020). doi: 10.1016/j.apenergy.2020.114693.