- 1Supervisory Authority for Regulatory Affairs, Budapest, Hungary (abel.marko@sztfh.hu)
- 2ELTE Eötvös Loránd University, Institute of Geography and Earth Sciences, Department of Geology, Hungary (marab@student.elte.hu)
- 3Dipartimento di Scienze della Terra “A. Desio”, Università degli Studi di Milano (UNIMI), Milan, Italy (daniele.pedretti@unimi.it)
Chemical clogging is one of the main issues arising in geothermal systems hindering the efficient operation, especially the thermal water reinjection. Hydrogeochemical models are able to assess the risk of mineral precipitation and provide quantitative estimation of the degradation of hydraulic properties.
A Python based simplified Graphical User Interface (named PHREI) was created with the abilities of a previously developed and published geochemical model setup. The Python source code of the GUI package can be found via the https://github.com/marabukok/PHREI page. This setup aims to reproduce the main geochemical processes of a geothermal loop from production until reinjection into the aquifer. The forming scale cumulated over time is then used to estimate the porosity and permeability degradation in the near-wellbore zone.
PHREI is applicable without creating new hydrogeochemical model setups by entering the parameters in pop-up windows: fluid composition of production well and reservoir fluid, mineral composition of the reservoir, flow rate, initial porosity and dimensions of gravel pack or the near well-bore zone, reinjection and reservoir temperature. Outcome of the model provides first estimate of clogging risk in doublet systems, as an example a theoretical period of time in which porosity is decreased by half. PHREI was tested at a geothermal doublet system suffering from low injectivity and used for pre-screening of thermal wells and regions with respect to the clogging risk. This way results contribute to a mapping of clogging related risk in the geothermal reconnaissance phase. Hence it can be part of the analysis of reinjection related risk, and the “geothermal reinjection potential”.
The first author was supported, and the research was financed through the KDP-2021 Cooperative Doctoral Programme of the Ministry of Culture and Innovation of Hungary from the source of the National Research, Development and Innovation Fund, grant number: KDP_2021_ELTE_C1789026. The study was funded by the National Multidisciplinary Laboratory for Climate Change, RRF-2.3.1-21- 2022-00014 project
How to cite: Markó, Á. and Pedretti, D.: PHREI – A simplified Python based Graphical User Interface for PHREEQC to model to chemical clogging processes in reinjection wells , EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-3613, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-3613, 2025.
