Alcohols as Two-Phase Tracers
- Key words
- tracer test, alcohols, two-phase tracers
- Conference
- Stanford Geothermal Workshop
- Year
- 2004
- Session
- MODELING
- Language
- English
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Abstract
The alcohols methanol, ethanol, n-propanol, and n-butanol
are potential two-phase geothermal tracers.
Their thermal stability ranges from very stable at
high temperatures (>300 o C; methanol) to somewhat
stable at moderate temperatures (~250 o C; n-butanol).
Their distribution between liquid and steam also
varies systematically, with methanol solubility being
very close to that of water (VR=6 at 150 o C) and n-butanol
being more soluble in steam by a factor of
seven. Preliminary, qualitative analysis indicates that
the decay of the alcohols produces shorter-chain
alcohols, giving rise to intriguing possibilities as
reactive tracers. In this paper we present the results
of several largely-unpublished short studies on the
stability of the alcohols that were performed over the
last decade.
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