Reservoir temperatures and fluid circulation depth of selected thermal springs in Magondi and Limpopo mobile belts of Zimbabwe: Implication for geothermal power generation摘要
The need to address the energy deficit and the shift from fossil fuels to renewable energies, has necessitated the rise in geothermal exploration. More than 20 thermal springs (geothermal fields) have been located in two distinct geological areas in Zimbabwe and provide potential sites for geothermal exploration and development. The utilisation of geothermal fields as a potential geothermal resource, capable of generating electricity using small and modular wellhead power plants, has not been studied in detail in the country. This paper presents a review of the geochemical data and new data set of selected thermal springs in the Magondi and the Limpopo mobile belts of Zimbabwe, with the objective of estimating the reservoir temperatures and fluid circulation depths, which in turn will be a step towards the assessment of the possibility of installing low to medium geothermal resource wellhead modular or small power generation plants. The chemical composition data from literature (1933–1976) and from this study (2020–2023) were used to estimate reservoir temperatures by the SiO2, Na–K, Na–K–Ca, K–Mg and Na–Li chemical geothermometers. Reservoir temperatures were used to assess the power generation potential of geothermal fields and to estimate whether the fields are at an economical depth for development. The results suggest that the estimated reservoir temperatures from geothermometers lie within the range of 72.1 and 268.1 °C circulating at a suggested depth of 3.76 km–9.73 km. With this information, the categorisation of the geothermal systems of the seven fields has been from low (<125 °C) to medium (125–225 °C) temperature systems with a possibility of generating electricity using binary systems or a combination of both binary and flash systems. The results deserve further exploratory surveys, using geological, geochemical, geophysical techniques and slim borehole drilling, with a possibility of enhanced geothermal system (EGS) power generation.
|
@ 2023 版权所有 中国地质图书馆 (中国地质调查局地学文献中心)
京ICP备 05064591号 京公网安备11010802017129号
建议浏览器: 火狐、谷歌、微软 Edge、不支持 IE