Los Azufres: the Initial Response of a Fractured Hydrothermal System to Exploitation

Abstract

Los Azufres is the firs! mexican geoth I field that produces electricity from anTintenseiy fractured volcanic hydrothermal system. A capacity of 90 MWe has been installed and the reservoir is being monitored to det- its early response to steam productton. Field data, linked to reservdr engineering studies and ernpirlcal observations, provide a first draft of a quantitative, integrated conceptual field's model. Presented herein is a brief, general, updated survey of the Los Azufres reservoir. subject to a concentrate mass extraction. A resume of the actual reservoir characteristics corn pared with field's natural preproduction state k made. At local scales, some important chemical and thermodynamical parameters start to exhibit temporal trends. Global mass and energy balances with reinjection are developed for this system.