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Assessing rare earth element concentrations in geothermal and oil and gas produced waters: A potential domestic source of strategic mineral commodities (Final Report)

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1509037· OSTI ID:1509037
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [4];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [2];  [4];  [2];  [2]
  1. Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States); Center for Economic Geology Research, University of Wyoming
  2. Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States)
  3. Univ. of Texas at El Paso, TX (United States)
  4. Wyoming-Montana Water Science Center, Cheyenne, WY (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The project team collected and analyzed 224 water samples and 101 matching rock samples. INL's improved method of measuring aqueous REEs allows study of samples previously thought too volume limited to measure. The study found that aqueous REEs occur at trace levels in all analyzed samples, and sometimes exceed ocean REE concentrations by a factor of 1,000. No significant predictive relationship to lithology, reservoir temperature, nor salinity was discovered, but aqueous REE concentration appears spatially controlled. Future work is needed to find the spatially-dependent variable that controls aqueous REE concentration.

Research Organization:
Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Geothermal Technologies Office (EE-4G)
Contributing Organization:
The Geothermal Technologies Office; Holly Thomas; Josh Mengers; The Technical Monitoring Team; Thomas Moore; Madalyn Blondes; Tanya Gallegos; Elisabeth Rowan; Colin Doolan; Mathew Varonka; Debbie Lacroix; Savannah Bachman; Kipp Coddington; Sitian Xiong; Mackensie Swift
DOE Contract Number:
EE0007603
OSTI ID:
1509037
Report Number(s):
DOE-UWYO--EE11111; http://gdr.openei.org/submissions/1125
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

15 GEOTHERMAL ENERGY
REE
aqueous
chemistry
commodity
concentration
energy
geochemistry
geothermal
mineral
oil and gas
produced water
rare earth elements
recovery
resource
sampling
spatial
spatially-dependent
trace
variable