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FBO DAILY - FEDBIZOPPS ISSUE OF MARCH 13, 2014 FBO #4492
SPECIAL NOTICE

A -- TECHNOLOGY/BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY Multi-Fluid Geothermal Energy Systems And Methods

Notice Date
3/11/2014
 
Notice Type
Special Notice
 
NAICS
238990 — All Other Specialty Trade Contractors
 
Contracting Office
Department of Energy, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (DOE Contractor), Industrial Partnerships & Commercialization, 7000 East Avenue, L-795, Livermore, California, 94550
 
ZIP Code
94550
 
Solicitation Number
FBO285-14
 
Archive Date
4/12/2014
 
Point of Contact
Connie L Pitcock, Phone: 925-422-1072
 
E-Mail Address
pitcock1@llnl.gov
(pitcock1@llnl.gov)
 
Small Business Set-Aside
N/A
 
Description
TECHNOLOGY/BUSINESS OPPORTUNITY Multi-Fluid Geothermal Energy Systems And Methods Opportunity : Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), operated by the Lawrence Livermore National Security (LLNS), LLC under contract no. DE-AC52-07NA27344 (Contract 44) with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), is offering the opportunity to enter into a collaboration to further develop and license intellectual property rights to commercialize its technology Multi-fluid Geothermal Energy Generation Systems and Methods. Background : The economic viability of geothermal energy production depends on finding a subsurface geothermal resource with high enough temperature, which yields high enough flow rates per well to justify exploration and development costs. Insufficient working fluid and pressure depletion can limit well flow rates and increase the cost of powering the working-fluid recirculation system. Depending on resource temperature and permeability, and on whether artesian pressure exists to drive self-flowing wells, the parasitic cost of working-fluid recirculation can be high, sometimes consuming more than half of the gross power output. A key goal for geothermal energy production is thus to minimize the parasitic cost of working-fluid recirculation. Because well costs constitute a major portion of capital costs, another key goal is to increase flow rates on a per well basis. To address these challenges, LLNL has developed an approach where supplemental working/pressure-support fluids are injected into a geothermal formation to generate artesian pressures that will drive high production flow rates of formation brine, and eventually, the supplemental working fluid itself. LLNL's approach does not require submersible pumps and has the potential of generating well flow rates that are much greater than those limited by the capacity of submersible pumps. Thus, it can take advantage of the large productivity inherent to long-reach horizontal wells, which is economically valuable, particularly with deep geothermal resources. LLNL's approach can be particularly valuable in geothermal resources that are too hot (>200 o C) for submersible pumps to operate. Description : LLNL's hybrid approach, which uses both formation brine and the supplemental fluid to extract geothermal energy, is deployed with a minimum of four concentric rings of production and injection wells. The inner ring consists of production wells. The second ring consists of supplemental fluid injection wells. The third ring consists of brine reinjection wells and the fourth ring consists of brine production wells. Additional production and injection rings may be included at different depths to provide better control of fluid and energy recovery for improved sweep efficiency, which reduces thermal drawdown and increases power generation and its sustainability. The multi-ring well approach can take advantage of the fact that horizontal-well drilling technology allows for precise directional control of the well orientation; hence, it is realistic to create precisely curved injection and production intervals. The motivation for using four concentric rings is to store and conserve the pressure energy from injection operations and to minimize the loss of the supplemental working fluid, yielding more efficient geothermal power and large-scale bulk energy storage (BES). The four concentric rings allow for a flexible range of pressure-management strategies to spread out reservoir overpressure (which is defined to be pressure in excess of ambient) and thereby limit the magnitude of overpressure to be sufficiently safe with respect to the possibility of induced seismicity and the leakage of the supplemental working fluid. LLNL's approach can use several working fluids, including supercritical CO 2 and N 2. Advantages : Key advantages of LLNL's approach are its efficiency and wide geographic deployment potential. By conserving and storing pressure from injection operations, it minimizes the parasitic cost of fluid recirculation. Its efficient well design and supplemental working fluids take advantage of the high permeability and large areas of sedimentary basins, as well as the large productivity of horizontal wells. Thus, it does not require hydraulic fracturing or re-injecting produced fluids at high overpressure to recovery geothermal energy, which reduces the risks of induced seismicity and supplemental-fluid (CO 2 and N 2 ) leakage. Because it can be deployed in sedimentary basins, it can geographically expand the use of geothermal energy across the United States. The advantage of using N 2 is that it can be separated from air at relatively low cost, compared to the cost of capturing pure CO 2 from flue gas and industrial processes. N 2 does not have the supply risk of CO 2 and does not pose the operational issues that may be associated with CO 2. N 2 will not react with the geothermal formation and will not lead to any corrosion of the well casing or above-ground equipment. Moreover, a staged approach can be used where N 2 is injected prior to CO 2 injection to demonstrate that a site can securely sequester CO 2, as well as to mitigate possible operational issues associated with CO 2. Mixtures of N 2 and CO 2 can be co-injected, as in the case of flue gas from fossil energy plants. There is an LLNL patent 6,790,030, Sept. 14, 2004 on multi-stage combustion using N 2 -enriched air, which, because it yields a flue gas greatly depleted in oxidants and with low corrosivity, creates a low-cost supplemental working fluid that poses reduced operational challenges, compared to either pure CO 2 or flue gas from conventional fossil-energy production. LLNL's approach can be synergistically combined with the use of either pure CO 2 or CO 2 /N 2 mixtures (including conventional flue gas) to enhance CH 4 production from deep unmineable coal seams. In applications involving CO 2, LLNL's approach can result in significant CO 2 sequestration, in addition to enabling cost-effective geothermal power generation and large-scale bulk energy storage (BES). Because LLNL's approach can inject a readily available supplemental fluid (N 2 ) it is not limited to continuous injection operations; rather, it is possible to inject a significant fraction of the N 2 during periods of minimum power demand, or when there is a surplus of intermittent renewable power, such as from wind and solar. Reservoir analyses show that time-shifting the parasitic load of N 2 separation and compression can result in large-scale diurnal to seasonal bulk energy storage (BES) without any loss of geothermal power generation capacity. Hence, our technology can efficiently stabilize electrical grids, which is crucial for integrating the growing penetration of intermittent renewable energy sources. Potential Applications : LLNL's approach is well suited for sedimentary formations, because of their typically high permeability and laterally extensive pore volumes. It may also be suitable for geothermal energy production in fractured crystalline rock. Our side-by-side reservoir analyses of pure CO 2 injection, compared to pure N 2 injection, show that, on a per mass basis, N 2 is at least as effective as CO 2 in extracting geothermal energy. Thus, our approach can effectively enable geothermal energy production in regions where CO 2 is not available. Because N 2 is less expensive than captured, CO 2, it can improve the economics of the prior CO 2 -only approach to recovering geothermal energy, as well as mitigate possible operational issues with injecting pure CO 2. Potential applications for use include: •· Geothermal energy production •· Hot saline aquifers (HSA) •· Enhanced geothermal systems (EGS) •· Enhanced coal-bed methane (CBM) production •· CO 2 sequestration •· Bulk energy storage (BES) and grid stabilization Development Status: LLNL has filed for patent protection on this technology. LLNL is seeking industry partners with a demonstrated ability to bring such inventions to the market. Moving critical technology beyond the Laboratory to the commercial world helps our licensees gain a competitive edge in the marketplace. All licensing activities are conducted under policies relating to the strict nondisclosure of company proprietary information. Please visit the IPO website at https://ipo.llnl.gov/?q=resources-industry-partnering_guidelines for more information on working with LLNL and the industrial partnering and technology transfer process. Note: THIS IS NOT A PROCUREMENT. Companies interested in a collaboration for further research and development and commercializing LLNL's Multi-Fluid Geothermal Energy Systems technology should provide a written statement of interest that includes the following: 1. Company Name and address. 2. The name, address, and telephone number of a point of contact. •3. A description of corporate expertise and facilities relevant to commercializing this technology. Written responses should be directed to: Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Industrial Partnerships Office P.O. Box 808, L-795 Livermore, CA 94551-0808 Attention: FBO 285-14 Please provide your written statement within thirty (30) days from the date this announcement is published to ensure consideration of your interest in LLNL's Multi-Fluid Geothermal Energy Systems and Methods.
 
Web Link
FBO.gov Permalink
(https://www.fbo.gov/spg/DOE/LLNL/LL/FBO285-14/listing.html)
 
Record
SN03307798-W 20140313/140311235139-6ed5214c399ee8a57e4d0c41bcf153e1 (fbodaily.com)
 
Source
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