Session 5C: Economic and Durable Materials and Completion Solutions for Geothermal Well Constructions and Operations

Geothermal wells are expected to have a long service life. At the same time conditions (high temperatures, aggressive environments) of these wells are arguably the most difficult for many materials to survive.  Furthermore, the search for economic power generation pushes the limits of the current technologies to even more extreme conditions of EGS and supercritical wells or to wells where materials are subjected to significant repeated thermos-mechanical stresses. Such challenges call for development of innovative scientific and technological solutions and their field applications.  The challenging environments of geothermal wells can serve as field laboratories for the next generation of materials applicable to various domains of science and engineering. 

This session will focus on advanced materials and technologies providing well integrity, during well construction, repairs and well monitoring throughout the well life cycle. These may include but are not limited to new cementitious technologies for EGS and ultra-high temperature applications in super-hot geothermal wells; heat pump or hot rock technologies where materials are subjected to constant thermal shock conditions; materials for HT electronic components; high-temperature corrosion-resistant metal, coatings, and elastomeric materials; field application of these and other relevant technologies and methods providing well integrity under geothermal environments. The session will welcome all geothermal material research, research and development work focused on new well integrity solutions, and field tests related to geothermal well durability.

  • 10:00 AM - 10:20 AM: A New Polymer Nanocomposite for Improving Geothermal Sweep Efficiency | Fatemeh Hamidi
  • 10:20 AM - 10:40 AM: Cement formulations for applications in reservoir thermal energy storage | Tatiana Pyatina
  • 10:40 AM - 11:00 AM: Cements for Use in Supercritical Geothermal Wells at 400oC | Tatiana Pyatina
  • 11:00 AM - 11:20 AM: Contraction and Expansion of a Simulated Wellbore Under Thermal Shock Conditions Occurring in Geothermal Systems | William Kibikas
  • 11:20 AM - 11:40 AM: Design of nano-Composite Production Tubing with Near-Zero Thermal Conductivity and Insulated Elastomer-Energized Packer for Enhanced Geothermal Systems, Rated to 750F | Ting Roy
  • 11:40 AM - 12:00 PM: Evaluation of the thermal properties of different well cement mixtures with applications to geothermal well construction | Catalin Teodoriu