The Economic Potential of Reinjection into Geopressured Aquifers

Abstract

This paper evaluates the technical potential, the energy balance, and the economics of reinjecting produced brines into geopressure geothermal aquifers. The engineering study summarized in this paper show that 70% to 100% of the power requirements of deep reinjection can be met by extracting the thermal and kinetic energy from the produced geopressure geothermal brines. Moreover, the technically recoverable methane resource could be increase up to twenty times by reinjecting the brines into the producing formation. Finally, the reinjection of brines would reduce the potential for environmental damage. Reinjecting the produced brines could enable geopressured aquifers to become economic as real energy prices increase, since the system is essentially independent of outside purchased power. At present time however, because of high cost and risk, the economics of geopressured aquifers are not favorable.