Degassing kinetics of high salinity geothermal fluids

Abstract

The production of geothermal fluids can be adversely affected by the formation of free gas bubbles (degassing). Decreasing pressures can cause dissolved gas to exsolve, which can reduce water production. This study aims to improve the understanding of the conditions under which free gas nucleates in geothermal reservoirs. The focus is on CO2 degassing from brines with varying salinity. We report a series of depressurisation experiments at high pressure and temperature using a cell that allows for visual monitoring of the degassing process using a high-speed camera along with pressure and temperature logging. A geochemical model was created for simulating the degassing behaviour at the same conditions as those used in the experiments, thus allowing for direct comparison.

Keywords

• degassing
• co2
• phreeqc
• high salinity