Western USA Assessment of High Value Materials in Geothermal Fluids and Produced Fluids
- Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States). Energy & Geoscience Inst.; EGI University of Utah
This report documents the results of investigations dealing with the concentrations and availabilities of strategic, critical and valuable materials (SCVM) in produced waters from geothermal and hydrocarbon reservoirs (50-250° C) in Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, and Utah. Analytical results were obtained for water samples from 47 production wells in 12 geothermal fields. Results were also obtained for samples from 25 oil/gas production wells in the Uinta and Paradox Basins and Covenant oil field, from 14 groundwater wells in the Tularosa play fairway (New Mexico), and from 20 groundwater wells and hot springs in the Sevier Thermal Belt (southwestern Utah). Most SCVM concentrations in produced waters range from <0.1 to 100 ug/kg. Lithium is the only element, which has much higher concentrations and which ranges from 10 to 26,000 ug/kg. Relatively high concentrations of gallium (10-80 ug/kg geothermal; 10-10,000 ug/kg Uinta Basin), germanium (1-70 ug/kg geothermal; 10-500 ug/kg Uinta and Paradox Basins), scandium (0.1-2.0 ug/kg geothermal; 5-10 ug/kg Paradox Basin), selenium (1-100 ug/kg geothermal; 10-20,000 ug/kg Uinta and Paradox Basins), and tellurium (0.1-10 ug/kg geothermal; 1-500 ug/kg Uinta and Paradox Basins) are measured too. Geothermal production waters contain very low concentrations of REEs, below analytical detections limits of 0.01 ug/kg, but the concentrations of some REEs (lanthanum, cerium, and europium) range from 0.05 to 5 ug/kg in Uinta Basin waters. Among the geothermal fields, the Roosevelt Hot Spring reservoir appears to have the largest endowments of germanium (20,000 kg) and lithium (7 million kg), the Patua reservoir appears to have the largest endowments of gallium (25,000 kg), selenium (47,000 kg), and tellurium (2500 kg), and the Raft River reservoir appears to have the large endowment of scandium (700 kg). By comparison, the Uinta Basin has larger inventories of gallium (>100,000 kg). These estimates are provisional, and they were calculated using geologically reasonable values for reservoir volumes and porosities. The concentrations of gallium, germanium, lithium, scandium, selenium, and tellurium in produced waters appear to be partly controlled by reservoir temperature and concentrations of total dissolved salts. The relatively high concentration and large endowment of lithium occurring at Roosevelt Hot Springs appears to be related to hot water interaction with crystalline granitic rocks, which host the reservoir and the hydrothermal system, and elevated concentrations of TDS. Analyses of calcite scales from Dixie Valley show that cobalt, gallium, gold, palladium, selenium and tellurium are depositing at deep levels in production wells due to boiling. Comparisons with SCVM mineral deposits suggest that brines in sedimentary basins or derived from lacustrine evaporites enable aqueous transport of gallium, germanium, and lithium.
- Research Organization:
- Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States). Energy & Geoscience Inst. (EGI)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), Renewable Power Office. Geothermal Technologies Office
- DOE Contract Number:
- EE0007604
- OSTI ID:
- 1706480
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-Simmons--High-Value-Materials-in-Geothermal-Fluids
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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