| Title | IDDP-2 - DRILLING INTO THE SUPERCRITICAL AT REYKJANES |
|---|---|
| Authors | G.O. Fridleifsson |
| Year | 2017 |
| Conference | New Zealand Geothermal Workshop |
| Keywords | Supercritical geothermal fluid, deep drill holes, IDDP, DEEPEGS |
| Abstract | The IDDP-2 well in Reykjanes, SW-Iceland, is the main topic of the presentation. The well was completed January 25th 2017 at 4659 m slant depth from rig floor. At Reykjanes, the landward extension of the Mid-Atlantic Ridge (Figure 1), it is possible to study an analog of the roots of a mid-ocean ridge black smoker geothermal system. Reykjanes is unique among Icelandic geothermal systems in being recharged by seawater, which has a critical point of 406°C at 298 bars. Drilling began 11th August, 2016 by deepening an existing 2.5 km deep production well (RN-15) to 3 km depth, and then angling it towards the main upflow zone of the system (Figure 2). The Iceland Deep Drilling Project (IDDP) aims to improve geothermal economics by producing supercritical fluids (www.iddp.is ). Wells producing from supercritical hydrous fluid could yield an order of magnitude more usable energy than that from conventional geothermal wells because of higher enthalpy and enhanced flow properties. In 2009, the IDDP-1 well in the Krafla caldera in NE-Iceland, was drilled into rhyolitic magma at only 2.1 km depth. The completed well became the world’s hottest production well for a while and produced superheated steam with wellhead temperature of 452°C at 140 bar, and flow sufficient to generate ~35 MWe. Flow testing experiments until 2012 proved extremely valuable for future harvesting of a magma enhanced geothermal system, which will also be discussed during the presentation. |