How Precise Can Thermal Breakthrough Predictions Be That Are Derived from Adsorptive Tracer Tests?

Abstract

Tracer tests can provide useful information about the potential impact that injection has on geothermal energy production. Established inert tracer tests are useful for revealing interwell connectivity and providing a quantitative sense of the possible extent of future temperature decline resulting from injection. However, it is understood that conventional inert tracer tests alone do not provide enough information to precisely predict the evolution of temperature decline. Adsorbing tracers can in principle be used to provide precise temperature decline predictions by constraining the effective fluid-rock heat exchange area that controls injection-induced thermal breakthrough. Here we consider how uncertainties in tracer reaction rate parameters affect the precision of thermal breakthrough predictions derived from adsorbing tracer test results.