A Tracer Test at the Soda Lake, Nevada Geothermal Field Using a Sorbing Tracer

Abstract

An interwell tracer test was conducted at the Soda Lake, Nevada geothermal field for the purpose of testing the performance of a sorbing, liquid-phase tracer, Safranin T. The tracer showed both significant retardation and extensive thermal decay relative to a coinjected conservative tracer. Batch-reactor and flow-reactor experiments were conducted for the purpose of measuring both the thermal stability and sorptive properties of Safranin T under laboratory conditions that simulate those of a geothermal reservoir. Numerical experiments were designed and initiated in an effort to simulate the field experiment and thereby constrain the interwell fracture surface area between an injection well and a production well in an operating geothermal reservoir.