Williston Basin Section - Society of Petroleum Engineers

Virtual DL Thursday, December 15, 11am CT, Live on Zoom Register Now 

We live in a world where there is increasing public will and Government support for lower carbon energy sources. The interest extends beyond the traditional “renewables”, arguably peak load supply, into geothermal power, which can provide base load power and to power heating and cooling systems. O&G Corporations and investors are contemplating a variety of projects in many locales. However, most of the new opportunities are not blessed with the resource quality powering existing geothermal operations in California, Italy, Iceland, the Philippines, and New Zealand and must seek success off assets with less heat and/or unstimulated well deliverability. The Laws of Thermodynamics create or destroy the geothermal potential inherently present in each project. Embracing the concept of the Second Law and the irreversibility of heat losses is necessary in project choices. Pressures, temperatures and other attributes of the energy containing streams require optimum degrees of preservation throughout industrial processes. Mid-grade thermal assets, arguably the target of most geothermal firms, will operate at the financial margins. Project planners, investors, and executors are trying to maximize fiscal gains and manage inherent risks. While finding and using heat sources has challenges, managing heat streams at surface correctly is best left to facilities engineers. This lecture illustrates and discusses typical decision points, heat loss locations and steps for winning at managing energy in geothermal projects. Careful choices in working fluid, condenser temperature and exchanger design, are required. What are the right questions for heat management and what are the right answers?

Biography

George Brindle is an internationally experienced professional engineer with 32 years of broad background in general upstream facilities, production treatment, pilot testing and deployment of new technology deployment. He is a leader in project and technical reviews, technical mentoring, oversight, education, and project audit services, as well as plant troubleshooting. George has a Bachelor of applied Science from Queen’s University and an EMBA from the University of Calgary. He is a long-time member of SPE.