Surfactants for Reduction of Drag in Geothermal Systems

地热发电厂包括注水井、回水井和分支井的网络。注入井和返回井每口长达5公里，还有大约10-20口分支井，每口长几公里。因此，通过这个井网抽水需要消耗大量的能量。地热技术的可持续性和进一步发展依赖于可以减少这种抽水功率的方法。当地热源远离市区并且需要更长的管道时，这一点也很重要。拟议的合作研究和开发项目是由Eavor Technologies Inc.和艾伯塔大学湍流实验室共同开展的，目的是研究使用特殊表面活性剂来减少闭环式地热系统中的流体阻力(压降)。Eavor是一家总部位于艾伯塔省的科技公司，专注于使用创新和高效的专利发电技术提取地热能。该项目将确定一种适用于与地热工业相关的高温减阻应用的表面活性剂。这些研究还将促进我们对非牛顿湍流的认识，为流动模型的发展提供参考。

A geothermal plant includes a network of injection, return, and lateral wells. The injection and return wells can be up to 5 km each, while there is also about 10-20 lateral wells each a few kilometers long. Therefore, a significant amount of energy is consumed to pump water through this network of wells. The sustainability and further growth of geothermal technology relies on methods that can reduce this pumping power. This is also of importance when a geothermal source is away from urban area and longer pipes are required. The proposed Collaborative Research and Development project is carried out between Eavor Technologies Inc. and the Laboratory of Turbulent Flows at the University of Alberta to investigate the use of special surfactants to reduce fluid drag (pressure drop) in closed-loop geothermal systems. Eavor is an Alberta-based tech company focused on extraction of geothermal energy using a patented innovative and efficient power generation technology. This project will identify a suitable surfactant for reduction of drag at high temperature applications related to geothermal industry. The investigations will also advance our knowledge of non-Newtonian turbulent flow for development of flow models.