MTC International Collaborative Project for advanced geothermal energy extraction
Establishment of new mapping/imaging technologies
for advanced energy extract ion from deep geothermal reservoirs
Outline of the Research
Geothermal energy is one of the most promising forms
of alternative energy; it is clean, safe and environmentally friendly.
Recent research indicates significant potential for geothermal
energy in deeper reservoirs (2000-5000m).
In the development of deeper reservoirs, the use of artificial
or modified natural subsurface cracks to enhance production, such
as Hot Dry Rock (HDR) and Hot Wet Rock (HWR), has enormous potential
as a geothermal energy extraction system for the next generation
of geothermal power plants.
The purpose of the MTC project is to establish new mapping techniques
in order to support the geothermal reservoir imaging/characterization
for HDR/HWR energy exploitation in the near future.
Each member of this project has had a substantial career in the
development of Acoustic Emission (AE) and Microseismic (MS) mapping
techniques. The advanced techniques developed by these researchers
give us completely new images and understanding of the HDR/HWR
reservoir structure and behavior, which could not be provided from
conventional AE/MS techniques utilizing only event location data.
The research projects are categorized into sev ‐eral topics as
follows: (1) Establishment of an AE/MS data exchange system among
research groups. (2) Establishment of universal new imaging/characterization
technologies by collectively verifying and processing data from
different HDR/HWR fields and different measurement sytems. (3)
Obtaining new understandings of the HDR/HWR reservoir in each field,
by the applications of the newly developed techniques.
Future development
The technology for geothermal reservoir imaging/characterization
will be greatly advanced through this project. Consequently, the
understanding of the reservoir can be considerably improved, and
thus its contribution to the design and successful achievement
of HDR/HWR systems is significant. These techniques can also play
an important monitoring role in other areas, for example in oil
recovery or civil engineering.
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