Radioactive Waste as an Anthropogenic Heat Source: Shallow and Deep Geothermal Applications

Doran, H. R. , Renaud, T., Brown, C. S. , Kolo, I. , Falcone, G. and Sanderson, D. C.W. (2023) Radioactive Waste as an Anthropogenic Heat Source: Shallow and Deep Geothermal Applications. In: European Geothermal Congress 2022, Berlin, Germany, 17-21 Oct 2022, ISBN 9782960194623

Abstract

Unconventional methods to extract heat from the subsurface can play a key role towards achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. A combined numerical/semi-analytical thermal analysis of notional ‘Eavor-like’ U-tube installations in three different geological disposal facility (GDF) settings is presented. The three geological environments are representative of evaporite (EV), higher strength rock (HSR) and lower strength sedimentary rock (LSSR), at depths of 1, 3 and 5 km, all characterized by predominance of conductive heat transfer into the U-tube. The T2WellEOS1/TOUGH2 software suite was used within this analysis, and a preliminary assessment for a 3 km injection section of an ‘Eavor-Like’ U-tube benchmark was made against code developed on MATLAB and OpenGeoSys (OGS). The results reveal a good match in the injection well between all three software, and the EV environment in the CLGS ‘Eavor-like’ U-tube prototypes leading to the highest outlet temperatures for the 1 km and 3 km vertical depths. In addition, the outlet energy flow rate for the 5 km HSR deep scenario (5.5 MWth) fell within the range for single lateral Utube thermal outputs from the literature.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Sanderson, Professor David and Kolo, Dr Isa and Brown, Dr Christopher and Falcone, Professor Gioia and Doran, Hannah
• Authors: Doran, H. R., Renaud, T., Brown, C. S., Kolo, I., Falcone, G., and Sanderson, D. C.W.
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Engineering > Systems Power and Energy; College of Science and Engineering > Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre
• ISBN: 9782960194623
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2023 The Authors
• First Published: First published in Proceedings EGC 2022
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced in accordance with the publisher copyright policy

Related URLs

• Organisation

Project Code	Award No	Project Name	Principal Investigator	Funder's Name	Funder Ref	Lead Dept
305200		DTP 2018-19 University of Glasgow	Mary Beth Kneafsey	Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC)	EP/R513222/1	MVLS - Graduate School