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Geothermal Technologies Office grant for fracture monitoring in geothermal EGS systems

Geothermal Technologies Office grant for fracture monitoring in geothermal EGS systems Time-lapsed Windowed Microseismic Imaging (Courtesy of FACT Inc. via Petrolern)
Alexander Richter 13 Jan 2021

A U.S. DOE grant has been awarded to companies Petrolern LLC and FACT Inc. monitoring and characterizing fracture evolution in enhanced geothermal systems using microseismic imaging constrained by geomechanical principles and modeling.

Announced earlier this week, U.S.-based Petrolern LLC, and its subcontractor FACT Inc., announced its selection by the US Department of Energy, Geothermal Technology Office for a research grant.

The research project involves developing an innovative and low-cost technology for monitoring and characterizing temporal fractures evolution in Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) using a novel Geomechanically Constrained Time-lapsed Windowed Microseismic Imaging method. This new technology significantly reduces the cost of monitoring the subsurface by using readily available microseismic data only. It provides valuable information to optimize stimulation schemes for maximum heat production in high-temperature geothermal systems. The technology could also add significant value to oil and gas and carbon storage subsurface monitoring and decision making.

Petrolern has been working on technologies for both high and low-temperature geothermal energy production. MIT estimates that only 2 percent of the geothermal energy available in the US would be sufficient to power the country 2,000 times over. The proposal helps to achieve that target both in the US and in analogue cases globally.

Source: Company release