Recovery Energy from a Depleted Reservoir Zone in the Cerro Prieto Geothermal Field

Abstract

This paper presents the actual production and thermodynamic characteristics of Cerro Prieto Uno (CPU) and show it as a depleted zone, regardless the 250 °C recorded in the reservoir. This paper analyzes the possibility of installing pumps in the existing wells and the construction of new wells with an adequate geometry to pump from 1000 m depth a minimum brine flow rate of 200 t/h. The power production is calculated and similar power can be produced with pumps in CPU compared with the existing wells in other parts of the field. From the fluid extracted 22% can be used as steam and the proposal is to install binary units to produce electricity from the rest of the brine. Several technical problems are presented in this paper related with the reservoir, the pump and the binary units. These results are encouraging and a new well drilled to produce steam from hot brine using a pump can be comparable with an actual well, if the flow rate in the surface could be minimum 150 t/h are obligated before the development of the proposed project.