An Experimental Measurement of the Adsorption of Superheated Steam

Abstract

The adsorption of liquid water in a vapour dominated geothermal reservoir is one way the rocks hold fluids. The presence of this adsorbed water must be taken into account in the evaluation of the reservoir capacity. A great number of papers have been published in the last ten years on this matter (see for instance [Hornbrook, 19941, and [Economides, 1985]); at Stanford University a big effort was carried out in experimental measurements of the adsorption/desorption from reservoir samples (see [Shang, 1994'1]). In Italy we have a new geothermal field not exploited yet, in the Monteverdi region (southern border of Larderello), where 16 productive wells were found, supplying two 20 MW geothermal units. All the wells produce superheated steam. The effect of adsorbed water was simulated, and the results will be presented in WGC 95 [Bertani, 1995].