Geothermal Energy: An Important Resource [519] 0813723981, 9780813723983

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Geothermal Energy: An Important Resource

edited by Carolyn B. Dowling Department of Geological Sciences Ball State University 2000 W. University Avenue Muncie, Indiana 47306, USA Klaus Neumann Department of Geological Sciences Ball State University 2000 W. University Avenue Muncie, Indiana 47306, USA Lee J. Florea Department of Geological Sciences Ball State University 2000 W. University Avenue Muncie, Indiana 47306, USA

Special Paper 519 3300 Penrose Place, P.O. Box 9140

Boulder, Colorado 80301-9140, USA

2016

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Copyright © 2016, The Geological Society of America (GSA), Inc. All rights reserved. Copyright is not claimed on content prepared wholly by U.S. government employees within the scope of their employment. Individual scientists are hereby granted permission, without fees or further requests to GSA, to use a single figure, a single table, and/or a brief paragraph of text in other subsequent works and to make unlimited photocopies of items in this volume for noncommercial use in classrooms to further education and science. Permission is also granted to authors to post the abstracts only of their articles on their own or their organization’s Web site providing that the posting cites the GSA publication in which the material appears and the citation includes the address line: “Geological Society of America, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, CO 80301-9140, USA (http://www.geosociety.org),” and also providing that the abstract as posted is identical to that which appears in the GSA publication. In addition, an author has the right to use his or her article or a portion of the article in a thesis or dissertation without requesting permission from GSA, provided that the bibliographic citation and the GSA copyright credit line are given on the appropriate pages. For any other form of capture, reproduction, and/or distribution of any item in this volume by any means, contact Permissions, GSA, 3300 Penrose Place, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, Colorado 80301-9140, USA; fax +1-303-357-1070; [email protected]. GSA provides this and other forums for the presentation of diverse opinions and positions by scientists worldwide, regardless of their race, citizenship, gender, religion, sexual orientation, or political viewpoint. Opinions presented in this publication do not reflect official positions of the Society. Published by The Geological Society of America, Inc. 3300 Penrose Place, P.O. Box 9140, Boulder, Colorado 80301-9140, USA www.geosociety.org Printed in U.S.A. GSA Books Science Editors: Kent Condie and Richard A. Davis Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-0-8137-2519-2 (paperback)

Cover: Energy stations contain the geothermal heat pumps, which are the workhorses of the groundsource geothermal system installed at the Ball State University campus (Muncie, Indiana). They use the Earth as a heat source or sink, depending on the university’s requirements. White, yellow, and green pipes are part of a district-wide distribution system that exchanges energy or heat between the ground and campus buildings. The white pipes (not shown) circulate water through the borehole fields to dissipate or retrieve stored heat. The yellow pipes serve the heating needs on campus, and the green pipes are used for the campus’s cooling demands. Photo courtesy of James Lowe.

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Contents

Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v 1.

Utility of geological and pedological models in the design of geothermal heat pump systems . . . . 1 Kevin M. Ellett and Shawn Naylor

2.

The characterization of flooded abandoned mines in Ohio as a low-temperature geothermal resource . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19 Joshua Richardson, Dina Lopez, Timothy Leftwich, Mike Angle, Mark Wolfe, and Frank Fugitt

3.

Thermogeologic performance of a large-scale, district geoexchange system in southeast Pennsylvania . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43 Martin F. Helmke, Jacqueline A. Wilson, Denise C. Gatlin, and Kirsten O. Moore

4.

Petrographic and hydrogeologic investigations for a district-scale ground-coupled heat pump—Ball State University, Indiana . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Andrew Siliski, Lee J. Florea, Carolyn B. Dowling, Klaus Neumann, Alan Samuelson, and Marsha Dunn

5.

Evaluation of a discrete-depth heat dissipation test for thermal characterization of the subsurface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67 Stephen M. Sellwood, Jean M. Bahr, and David J. Hart

6.

Physical modeling of coupled heat transfer and water flow in soil-borehole thermal energy storage systems in the vadose zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Tuğçe Başer, Thierry Traore, and John S. McCartney

7.

Thermal conductivity, thermal gradient, and heat-flow estimations for the Smackover Formation, southwest Arkansas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95 Lea M. Nondorf

8.

Stochastic exploration and the geologic context of enhanced geothermal system viability on the Snake River Plain, Idaho . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115 Alex Moody, Jerry Fairley, and Mitchell Plummer

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The Geological Society of America Special Paper 519 2016

Preface

Nationally and globally, geothermal energy is a crucial resource. Included in this GSA Special Paper are important complementary investigations from geothermal heat pumps to enhanced geothermal systems. Geothermal heat pumps (GHPs), also called ground-source heat pumps (GSHPs), are often closed systems with vertical or horizontal borehole heat exchangers (BHEs) (Haehnlein et al., 2010). GHPs use the relatively constant soil and bedrock temperature to store and release thermal load in the summer and the winter, respectively (Lund et al., 2004; Haehnlein et al., 2010). These systems commonly consist of a series of sealed pipe that is installed as loops in the ground, through which water and/or antifreeze is circulated, and which are connected to a heat pump or energy exchanger (Diao et al., 2004). GHPs are a rapidly growing application of renewable energy with more than 900,000 units operating in the United States and annual increases of 10% in ~30 countries over the past ten years (Lowe et al., 2010; Lund et al., 2004). The main advantage of GHPs is the use of ambient ground temperatures. While deep geothermal applications (about >400 m depth; discussed later) are often large scale and geologically specific (i.e., hydrothermal vents and areas of high heat flux), GHPs are deployed in relatively shallow environments (400 m depth; discussed later) are often large scale and geologically specific (i.e., hydrothermal vents and areas of high heat flux), GHPs are deployed in relatively shallow environments (