Study of Foam Fracturing for Enhanced Geothermal Systems Using Model Material

Conference · Sat Feb 01 00:00:00 EST 2020

OSTI ID:1606689

Wang, Hong  ^[1]; Wang, Jy-An John  ^[1]; Polsky, Yarom  ^[1]; Ren, Fei ^[2]; Li, Haoqi ^[2]; Thakore, Virensinh ^[2]; Xi, Jiaxin ^[2]

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1. ORNL
2. Temple University

Foam fracturing is considered a potential approach to address water concerns with hydraulic fracturing in the development of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). In many EGS sites, water required for hydraulic fracturing is either unavailable, extremely costly or environmentally unsustainable. This paper presents work performed in the first year of a project sponsored by the U.S. DOE GTO Waterless Stimulation Initiative that investigates foam fracturing as an alternative approach to hydraulic fracturing. One element of this work explores foam formulations that are suitable for EGS conditions. A separate paper submitted to this workshop covers the relevant work on foam characterization (Thakore et al., 2020).This paper describes the development of an experimental setup for studying the applicability of foam fluids for hydraulic fracturing along with enhanced fracture efficiency through cyclic pressurization. The system is equipped with pulse rate automation, dual pulse valves for enhanced pulsation amplitudes, and other functions. It can perform static injection at a given pressurization rate, and pulsed injection at specified pulse size and rate. Both single-phase and foamed fluids can be used. Initial experimental results of foam fracturing using cement as a model material are reported. The observations from the experimental work will be presented and discussed.

• Research Organization: Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), Oak Ridge, TN (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC05-00OR22725
• OSTI ID: 1606689
• Resource Relation: Conference: 45th Annual Stanford Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering - Stanford, California, United States of America - 2/10/2020 10:00:00 AM-2/12/2020 10:00:00 AM
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English