Abstract
Deep formation waters with high salinity and temperature, used for geothermal energy production, generally induce corrosion and scaling. Tailored material selection and costly chemical treatments are necessary to mitigate these issues. Corrosion and/or scaling adversely affect technical facilities by significantly reducing their efficiency and causing lost profitability for the project. Although direct monitoring of corrosion and scaling in technical facilities increases their reliability and enables a more cost-effective use of chemical treatments, current commercially available monitoring systems are limited in terms of temperature and pressure. The suitability and potential benefit of using hydrogeochemical modelling to monitor scaling and corrosion during geothermal exploration and production in the high-salinity geothermal area of the North German Basin was explored. Modelling results were compared with practical experience. The comparison indicated that hydrogeochemical modelling can help to predict chemical reactions due to interactions between the formation, production fluids, and structural materials in downhole equipment, especially when combined with chemical monitoring of drilling and production fluids. Therefore, hydrogeochemical modelling could also be used for the detection of integrity problems and the prediction of remaining service life of downhole equipment.
