A method for collecting a heated fluid from a fractured subterranean formation can include removing a fluid having a liquid phase from the fractured subterranean formation through a wellbore that is in fluidic communication with the fractured subterranean formation. The method can also include collecting from the wellbore the heated fluid having a vapor phase that is expelled from a low permeability rock matrix of the fractured subterranean formation. The method can also optionally include injecting an injection fluid having the liquid phase into the low permeability rock matrix of the fractured subterranean formation through the wellbore when a parameter falls outside a range of acceptable values.

A multivessel system is provided for drilling an ultra-deep borehole into the Earth's lithosphere. The system includes a plurality of gate valves, a first pressure vessel configured with a first vessel elevator that engages and holds a train section as the first vessel elevator moves in the first pressure vessel along a portion of a length of a drill train channel; a second pressure vessel configured with a second vessel elevator that engages and holds the train section as the second vessel elevator moves in the second pressure vessel along another portion of the length of the drill train channel; a third pressure vessel configured with a smooth cylinder bore and a burn gas ejection piston configured to hold and connect the train section to the drill train; an input-output separator configured to segregate an exhaust waste gas up-flowing from the borehole from a gas being supplied into the borehole; and a drill train clamp configured to engage and hold a drill train in a borehole.

A system and method of harvesting geothermal energy in a subterranean formation includes providing an injection wellbore that extends into the subterranean formation, positioning a plurality of selectively opening sleeves in the injection wellbore spaced apart the subterranean formation, providing at least one producing wellbore that extends into the subterranean formation in a predetermined location proximate to the injection wellbore, and fracturing the subterranean formation in a plurality of locations proximate to the plurality of selectively opening sleeves to enhance a fluid pathway between the injection wellbore and the at least one producing wellbore. Fluid is injected down the injection wellbore at a first temperature, and the fluid is produced from the at least one producing wellbore at a second temperature higher than said first temperature.

A well completion to convert a hydrocarbon production well into a geothermal well includes flow tubes to transport a working fluid through the well and a heat exchanger at a downhole location coupled to the flow tubes to exchange heat of the formation at the downhole location with the working fluid. A heat exchange fluid surrounds the heat exchanger at the downhole location to be heated by the formation at the downhole location. The heat exchanger heats the working fluid to a state in which the working fluid rises to the surface. At the surface, a power plant uses the heated working fluid to generate work. The working fluid is then cooled and returned to the downhole location to repeat the work generation cycle.

Systems and methods for drilling a geothermal well can include drilling a vertical borehole to a target location, drilling a plurality of lateral boreholes, each of which is connected to the vertical borehole, and can include generating a plurality of chambers in at least one of the plurality of lateral boreholes. The techniques can include drilling a plurality of passageways that each provide fluid communication between one of the plurality of chambers in a first lateral borehole and a second lateral borehole of the plurality of lateral boreholes. The techniques can form a fluid circuit for injecting a heating fluid such as water or brine and recovering hot water and steam using a single vertical borehole. The hot water and/or steam can be used to generate electrical power with a geothermal power facility.

Systems and methods for harvesting geothermal energy use temperature-based flow control to optimize the extraction of thermal energy from a geothermal reservoir. In one example, a thermal transport fluid is flowed into a wellbore traversing a thermal reservoir of a formation. Flow of the thermal transport fluid into and out of the thermal reservoir is dynamically controlled at each of a plurality of injection and/or return locations in response to a downhole parameter such as temperature. For example, flow may be controlled so that the flow into the thermal reservoir is greater at the injection locations where the temperature is hotter and that the flow out of the thermal reservoir is greater at the return locations where the temperature is hotter. The thermal transport fluid produced from the return locations is then conveyed to surface to extra the thermal energy.

The disclosure provides an Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) magnetic nanoparticle tracer agent technique and interpretation method. The method comprises the steps of: through a magnetic nanoparticle surface modification technique and thermal stability analysis of a high-temperature high-pressure reactor, firstly accomplishing the screening of magnetic nanoparticles, so as to prepare magnetic nanoparticles having suitable diffusivity and controllable thermal stability; upon this basis, performing a core penetration test, characterizing EGS connectivity by sampling and analyzing the change in concentration of magnetic nanoparticles, and calculating a heat exchange area between rock and injected water; and meanwhile obtaining electromagnetic signal distribution of magnetic nanoparticles entering a reservoir by utilizing an electrical measurement technology, inverting reservoir connectivity by using resistivity and calculating the heat exchange area, and calibrating the resulting reservoir connectivity and heat exchange area with the connectivity.

Disclosed herein are system, apparatus, article of manufacture, method and/or computer program product embodiments, and/or combinations and sub-combinations thereof, for using a thin-bed hot sedimentary aquifer (HSA) in geothermal energy generation applications. An example embodiment operates by pumping, via an extraction well, heated water from an extraction depth of an HSA. The HSA is identified based on a permeability satisfying a threshold permeability range and could even have a thickness equal to or less than about 100 meters. The example embodiment further operates by extracting, via a power generation unit, heat from the heated water to generate power and transform the heated water into cooled water. Subsequently, the example embodiment operates by injecting, via an injection well, the cooled water at an injection depth of the HSA. A first portion of the extraction well and a second portion of the injection well are disposed within the HSA.

A method for recompleting a well is applied to a well such that the recompleted well can thermally transfer geothermal energy to surface. The recompleting method can comprise steps to hydraulically isolate a wellbore using a hydraulic isolation means, and enhance the thermal conductivity of a reservoir in which the wellbore is located by inserting a thermal material into the reservoir that displaces a reservoir fluid having a lower thermal conductivity than the thermal material.

Disclosed herein are various embodiments of systems for drilling and operating a well which may have dual uses. The well may be drilled and operated as a geothermal well using a hybrid approach where a heat transfer fluid is injected into a hot rock formation but is not removed, and heat is extracted using a closed loop method. The geothermal well is then evaluated for use as a carbon dioxide sequestration well. In other embodiments, the well is drilled as a carbon dioxide sequestration well and then evaluated for its potential for generating geothermal energy using a hybrid approach where supercritical carbon dioxide is injected into a hot rock formation but is not removed, and heat is extracted using a closed loop method. Both horizontal and vertical wells are disclosed, in sedimentary rocks and in basement granite.