Periodic Reporting for period 1 - NERUDA (Numerical and ERT stUdies for Diffusive and Advective high-enthalpy systems)
Período documentado: 2018-11-01 hasta 2020-10-31
The goal of NERUDA is to deepen our understanding of high-enthalpy hydrothermal systems by combining numerical simulations of fluid flow with temperature, soil CO2 and deep geoelectrical measurements. The main scientific objective of NERUDA is the development of a geothermal module in the MATLAB Reservoir Simulation Toolbox (MRST), an open-access software for the simulation of fluid flow in reservoirs developed by SINTEF, Oslo, Norway. This module is expected to have a large impact on the scientific community both in academia and in the industry for the simulation of geothermal problems. The second important scientific contribution is to document the tectonic control of a the Tolhuaca hydrothermal system combining geophysical data with temperature, CO2 flux measurements and structural data to propose an evolution model for the hydrothermal system. The collected data will bring further constrains for the exploration of the area that is investigated for geothermal activities by a local company. Generally, NERUDA will deepen our understanding of the tectonic control of high-enthalpy hydrothermal systems, which is also relevant for the exploitation of geothermal energy in Europe.
In parallel to the field work activities and subsequent processing of the data, the researcher developed a geothermal module in MRST, whose functioning and well tested parts have been made freely and openly available for the first time in December 2019 as part of the MRST 2019b release. This part of the module is now frequently released by SINTEF under a GNU GPL, while the researcher keeps on the update and development of the geothermal module, jointly with researchers from SINTEF. A dedicated book chapter has been written by Marine Collignon and SINTEF collaborators explaining in details the main functions and provided examples inside the geothermal module. This chapter is part of a book entitled Advanced Modelling with the MATLAB Reservoir Simulation Toolbox, edited by SINTEF and published by Cambridge that should be released by the end of the year. The module has also been used to investigate the geothermal potential of the Great Geneva Basin in the framework of a project led by the supervisor, Matteo Lupi, and resulted so far into two publications.