Advanced materials for geothermal energy applications

Usage of advanced materials and tools in geothermal energy applications become a trendy topic that captures a glance in the industry day by day. New technology materials such as fiber coatings, dressing materials and composites as well as new technology tools such as Distributed Temperature Sensing Systems and Distributed Thermal Perturbation Sensor allows an improved reservoir monitoring in harsh environments that have HTHP or high CO2 conditions. Thermal Infrared Remote Sensing tools that could be attached to a carrier like an aircraft, drone or a satellite and enables to describe temperature anomalies in forests, seabed, and land also pave the way of a robust identification of geothermal sources and hot spring waters. Tracers determine hydraulic connectivity between wells an gives an idea about the reservoir volume. Advanced drilling fluids are advantageous due to their light weight, tough structure which resists to corrosion compared with conventional ones and the developments promising to evolve these fluids with nanotechnology in close future. Advanced cements that developed by the aim of providing perfect zonal isolation opened the way of developing various cement types such as; foam cements, phosphate bonded, self-healing, and CO2 resistant cements. Apart from exploration phase, many inventions and developments that ensures lower health and safety risks, lower operating and maintenance costs and increases the energy efficiency in heat transfer and energy conversion sections of geothermal industry were gained a place in the market.

In this chapter of the book, latest advances in geothermal industry materials and applications as well as latest technology tools which are more beneficial and efficient compared with the conventional methods are investigated in details.