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Advances in Geothermal and Solar Energy Development and Utilization

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A special issue of Energies (ISSN 1996-1073). This special issue belongs to the section "A: Sustainable Energy".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 June 2024 | Viewed by 3721

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Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Liang Gong

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Guest Editor

College of New Energy, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Interests: hot dry rock; solar energy utilization; thermal management; heat transfer enhancement

Dr. Chuanyong Zhu

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Guest Editor

College of New Energy, China University of Petroleum (East China), Qingdao 266580, China
Interests: heat transfer in porous media; thermal insulation; geothermal energy development

Prof. Dr. Yan Li

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Guest Editor

College of Engineering, Ocean University of China, Qingdao 266100, China
Interests: high-efficiency heat and mass transfer; industrial energy-saving technology and energy management system; ocean thermal energy conversion; micro-nano materials and fluid control technology

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The utilization of fossil-based energy has resulted in significant environmental and ecological issues that have affected our lives. The continued reliance of the global industry and our daily activities on fossil fuels will accelerate the rate of global warming, with terrible consequences. One possible solution to the challenges posed by fossil-based energy is the widespread adoption of renewable sources. Among them, geothermal and solar energy are considered the most promising renewable sources and have received much attention from researchers due to their widespread distribution, vast content, and cleanliness. In recent years, significant advances have been achieved in this field, including resource assessment, economic evaluation, physical modeling, efficient exploitation and utilization of these resources, solar and geothermal energy storage technologies, and other technologies related to geothermal and solar energy. These achievements have contributed to the rapid growth of the geothermal and solar industries. Given the rapid development of the industry and the emergence of new academic achievements in this field, this Special Issue aims to highlight the most recent experimental, numerical, theoretical, and technological advances in geothermal and solar energy development and utilization and provide a platform for academics to share their findings.

Prof. Dr. Liang Gong
Dr. Chuanyong Zhu
Prof. Dr. Yan Li
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

enhanced geothermal systems
shallow geothermal utilization system
geothermal heat exchangers
heat transfer in geothermal systems
numerical modeling of EGSs
solar and geothermal heat pump systems
geothermal productivity
energy storage on solar and geothermal energy systems
solar energy utilization technology
solar and geothermal power generation
economic evaluation of geothermal and solar systems

Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

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19 pages, 6564 KiB

Open AccessFeature PaperArticle

Investigation of Heat Extraction in an Enhanced Geothermal System Embedded with Fracture Networks Using the Thermal–Hydraulic–Mechanical Coupling Model

by Xin-Yue Duan, Di Huang, Wen-Xian Lei, Shi-Chao Chen, Zhao-Qin Huang and Chuan-Yong Zhu

Energies 2023, 16(9), 3758; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16093758 - 27 Apr 2023

Cited by 2 | Viewed by 1294

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical study on thermal energy mining from hot dry rock (HDR) using an enhanced geothermal system (EGS). In these simulations, the thermal–hydraulic–mechanical (THM) coupling model is employed on the basis of the embedded discrete fracture model. The evolution of physical fields of the fractured reservoir, including temperature field, pressure field, and stress field is studied over time, and the effects of different controllable factors, such as fracture morphology, fluid injection rate, and the distances between the injection well and producing well on the heat recovery capacity are investigated. The results show that the fracture morphology significantly influences heat extraction performance. The working fluid mainly flows along with the fracture networks, which causes locally low temperatures and low mean effective stress near fractures. The porosity and permeability increase due to the decrease in mean effective stress. For reservoir models with inclined fractures, there will be a significant decrease in the extraction temperature. In the 30th year, the decline in the heat recovery rate is 46.6%, which is much higher than the model without inclined fractures. Moreover, the increasing injection temperature barely influences the production temperature, while it significantly decreases the heat recovery of the EGS. When the injection and production well spacing is small, increasing the well spacing is an effective way to improve the thermal extraction performance of the EGS. In the model in the paper, the heat production increases up to 13.7% when the injection-production well spacing is increased from 150 m to 450 m. The results of this work could provide guidance for the optimization and operation of EGS. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Geothermal and Solar Energy Development and Utilization)

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21 pages, 5457 KiB

Open AccessArticle

Multi-Objective Optimization of Graded Thermal Storage System for Direct Steam Generation with Dish Concentrators

by Zhengyue Zhu, Ruihao Bian, Yajun Deng, Bo Yu and Dongliang Sun

Energies 2023, 16(5), 2404; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16052404 - 2 Mar 2023

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Abstract

A single sensible thermal storage system has the disadvantage of poor system efficiency, and a sensible-latent graded thermal storage system can effectively solve this problem. Moreover, the graded thermal storage system has the virtue of being adjustable, which can be adapted to many power generation systems. Therefore, this paper first analyzes the influence factors of the graded thermal storage system’s exergy and thermal efficiency. Subsequently, each factor’s significance was analyzed using the response surface method, and the prediction model for system exergy efficiency and cost was established using the support vector machine method. Finally, the second-generation nondominated sorting genetic algorithm (NSGA-II) was used to globally optimize the graded thermal storage system’s exergy efficiency and cost by Matlab software. As a result, the exergy efficiency was increased by 11.01%, and the cost was reduced by RMB 5.85 million. In general, the effect of multi-objective optimization is obvious. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Geothermal and Solar Energy Development and Utilization)

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Review

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18 pages, 3502 KiB

Open AccessReview

Silica Nanoparticle Formation from Supercritical Geothermal Sources

by Silje Bordvik and Erling Næss

Energies 2023, 16(16), 5981; https://doi.org/10.3390/en16165981 - 15 Aug 2023

Cited by 1 | Viewed by 874

Abstract

Silica precipitation from high-enthalpy, depressurized supercritical fluids is investigated to determine the best method for accessing the scaling potential as a function of time, position and fluid composition. The most relevant knowledge application is for geothermal sources where the wells are drilled closed to magma and the temperature gradients in the rock are very high. The power potential per well for such a system is large compared to conventional geothermal power production, but several knowledge gaps, among them mineral precipitation from produced fluids, limit commercial use. For the high-enthalpy supercritical well fluid used as a base case in this review, conventional methods for reducing the silica content before it enters a turbine limit the power output. Knowledge of the particle-number density, size and time scales of growth in different depressurization scenarios, along with the silica solubility, kinetics and morphology, is essential to handle deposits and avoid scaling in inconvenient parts of the power plant. Experimental data on the precipitation of silica from highly supersaturated superheated steam are scarce, and it is known that the kinetics of precipitation in steam differ from those of liquid water. We argue that to quantify the number of solids in the depressurized supercritical fluid and superheated steam, dividing the process into three separate but dependable mathematical steps is a reliable approach: (1) the nucleation of nanocolloids, (2) growth by agglomeration, and (3) deposition onto a surface. Full article

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Advances in Geothermal and Solar Energy Development and Utilization)

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