The present disclosure relates to techniques for extracting heat energy from geothermal briny fluid. A briny fluid can be extracted from a geothermal production well and delivered to a heat exchanger. The heat exchanger can receive the briny fluid and transfer heat energy from the briny fluid to a molten salt. The molten salt can be pumped to a molten salt storage tank that can serve as energy storage. The briny fluid can be returned to a geothermal source via the production well. The briny fluid can remain in a closed-loop system, apart from the molten salt, from extraction through return to the geothermal production well.

The field of the invention relates to systems and methods for exchanging heat from the degradation, decomposition, and chemical/biochemical transformation of municipal, industrial, and other types of waste. In one embodiment, a heat extraction system may include a closed-loop fluid circulation piping channeled throughout at least one heat extraction well oriented throughout a waste mass. The piping is fluidly coupled to a heat exchanger. A first circulation fluid is circulated through the closed-loop circulation piping into various depths of the waste mass to transfer thermal energy between said mass and said heat exchanger. In one embodiment, the transfer of thermal energy between the waste mass and the heat exchanger is used as alternative energy method and to control at least one of shear strength, compressibility, and hydraulic conductivity of the waste mass.

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.

Trench-confirmable geothermal reservoirs with flexible reservoir bodies that can snugly abut trench walls (that may be of virgin, compacted earth) for facilitating heat exchange and flow liquid from one lower end to an opposing top end, and vice versa, depending on desired heat exchange. The direction can be reversed for summer and winter heat/cooling configurations. A series of the reservoirs may be used for appropriate heat transfer. The water volume of the reservoirs is relatively large and slow moving for good earth heat conduction. The reservoirs include first and second ports, one of which has an elongate internal tube that has a bottom that resides adjacent a bottom of the reservoir body and a series of apertures on only a lower portion of the internal tube to intake or output liquid depending on flow direction.

A natural enhanced geothermal system (NAT-EGS) that uses a hot sedimentary aquifer (HSA) is disclosed. An example method may include pumping, via an extraction well, heated water from an extraction depth of a HSA, wherein the HSA satisfies a threshold geothermal characteristic. The example method may include extracting, via an energy conversion unit, heat from the heated water to capture energy, resulting in cooled water. The example method may include injecting, via an injection well, the cooled water at an injection depth of the HSA, wherein the injection depth is deeper than the extraction depth.

A geothermal system includes an outer vessel having a sidewall that is in contact with surrounding ground material. A geothermal pile is disposed within an interior volume of the outer vessel, wherein a first heat conducting liquid at least partially fills a space between an inner surface of the sidewall of the outer vessel and an outer surface of the geothermal pile when in an installed condition. A conduit disposed within an interior space of the geothermal pile conducts a second heat conducting liquid along a flow path within the geothermal pile toward a bottom end thereof and then back to an outlet at a top end thereof. During operation, heat is transferred from the surrounding ground to the second heat conducting liquid via the first heat conducting liquid within the space between the inner surface of the sidewall of the outer vessel and the outer surface of the geothermal pile.

Offshore production systems and methods relating thereto are disclosed. In an embodiment, the offshore production system includes a surface vessel. In addition, the offshore production system includes a closed-loop cooling fluid circulation system extending subsea from the vessel and configured to cool a cooling fluid. The closed-loop cooling fluid circulation system includes a first tendon having an upper end coupled to the surface vessel and a lower end coupled to the seabed. The first tendon is in tension between the upper end and the lower end. The first tendon is configured to flow the cooling fluid from the lower end of the first tendon to the upper end of the first tendon.

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 hybrid geothermal electrical power generation system that utilizes the heat from a deep geothermal reservoir to vaporize a working fluid, such as steam, CO.sub.2 or an organic fluid. The vaporized working fluid is used to turn a turbine connected to an electrical power generator. A solar collector may be used to increase the temperature of the working fluid during sunlight hours and a thermal storage unit may be utilized to increase the temperature of the working fluid during the night. A supercritical CO.sub.2 power generation cycle may be used alone or in combination with a steam turbine power generation cycle to utilize all of the heat energy. A vapor compression cycle, a vapor absorption cycle may be utilized to provide heating and cooling. A low temperature shallow geothermal reservoir may be used as a heat exchanger to regulate or store excess heat.

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.