Mining of Mineral Deposits

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Integrated energy-efficiency assessment of a geothermal well doublet digital twin for oil and gas fields

Mykhailo Fyk1, Ilya Fyk1, Oleksandr Fyk1, Illia Fyk1

1National Technical University “Kharkiv Polytechnic Institute”, Kharkiv, Ukraine


Min. miner. depos. 2026, 20(2):54-63


https://doi.org/10.33271/mining20.02.054

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      ABSTRACT

      Purpose. The research aims to develop and validate an integrated approach to assessing the digital twin of a geothermal well doublet system, which, within a single computational scheme, combines inter-well filtration, heat transfer within the wellbore, pump flow rates and the realistic low-temperature cogeneration potential. In addition, the purpose of research is to form a model suitable for operational decision-making and preliminary technical-economic assessments in conditions where electricity cogeneration is treated as a derivative component of heat extraction, limited by allowable drawdown and the heat-transfer fluid circulation mode in oil-and-gas-type collectors.

      Methods. An integrated modelling methodology was employed, comprising a radially generalized filtration model based on Darcy’s law, a modified Shukhov’s model for assessing heat losses in the wellbore column taking into account a velocity correction, as well as an energy module for determining pump power and a model for assessing the electrical power of low-temperature cogeneration. A parametric analysis was performed for a series of calculation scenarios, based on which an empirical multiplicative dependence of useful thermal power was identified and a dimensionless integral efficiency criterion was formed for constructing stable operating ranges.

      Findings. It has been found that the useful thermal power of a geothermal doublet varies between 0.2-0.99 MW, while the potential for electricity cogeneration is 15-75 kW, or about 4-7% of the thermal power. It is shown that maximizing debit is not equivalent to maximizing useful energy due to the rapid growth in pump flow rates and heat losses in the wells. It has been determined that the optimal operating modes of the doublet should be based on an integral energy criterion, and not only on hydrodynamic parameters.

      Originality. An integrated thermohydraulic-energy core for a geothermal doublet digital twin has been developed and validated, in which filtration, heat transfer, heat losses, pump flow rates and cogeneration are combined into a single analytically consistent model. For the first time, a multiplicative empirical formula for assessing useful thermal power has been synthesized, and an energy-consistent criterion for selecting operating modes of a geothermal doublet system has been proposed.

      Practical implications. The proposed approach forms an engineering-appropriate basis for the rapid selection of debits, well depths, and nominal drainage radii, which make it possible to determine stable operating modes of geothermal doublets, reduce energy losses, limit pumping loads, and reasonably assess the thermal potential of oil and gas conversion projects.

      Keywords: geothermal doublet; low-potential geothermal energy; digital twin; cogeneration; heat losses in the well; Darcy’s law of filtration


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