NUMERICAL STUDIES OF THE ENERGY SWEEP IN FIVE-SPOT GEOTHERMAL PRODUCTION/INJECTION SYSTEMS

Most recent interest in the injection of cold water into a geothermal reservoir has been related to the disposal of geothermal brines. Injection also offers the potential benefit of prolonging the useful life of a vapor-dominated system by providing additional water to extract energy out of the rock matrix. In a liquid-dominated reservoir injection may help to maintain pressures near the production wells by pushing the hot water toward them and preventing too much local boiling. Pressure maintenance can also be achieved for superheated steam zones, because injection will cause pressures to increase towards the saturation pressure (Schroeder et a l . (1980)). The general physical principles governing these processes are understood but no quantitative information is available. The present work is aimed at helping to improve the qualitative and quantitative understanding of injection into a geothermal reservoir by considering a few idealized problems. First a vapor-dominated, single layer reservoir is considered, next a vapor-dominated, four layer reservoir, and finally a liquid-dominated, single layer reservoir. In each case varying injection rates are considered and in some cases the injectionis changed at different times.