A 300°C Data Acquisition System for Hostile Environments

Abstract

The Sandia Geothermal Research Department has developed a complete data acquisition system for the hightemperature environments found inside a geothermal well. The geothermal well is not just a hot well (180-320ºC), but contains free hydrogen, chlorine, and sulfur. Details of the Sandia 250-300ºC data acquisition system are provided within this paper along with future needs for hostile environmental sensors required to support both the geothermal and deep natural-gas industries. The Sandia data acquisition system can be used to field sensors for long-term demonstration testing. One of the Sandia high-temperature demonstration tools has been running inside a 193ºC well for over one year. A secondary benefit of this demonstration was the capture of never seen before earthquake effects on deep, high-temperature geothermal reservoirs. An example of earthquake data is shown within the report.