(618f) A Novel System to Measure the Liquid/Vapor Fraction in a Geothermal Production Well in Real-Time

The liquid/vapor fraction, which is used to calculate production rate, is one of the most important parameters to monitor in real-time yet facing technological challenges. None of the state-of-the-art technologies can precisely measure the water/steam fraction in real time for an individual well at a relatively low cost. The geothermal system itself is hard to control precisely in terms of fluid flow rate, heat transfer, and homogeneity, which adds more complexity to the water/steam two-phase flow generated from a geothermal production well. Sensor technology to measure density, pressure, temperature, and velocity have been well advanced in the past a few decades. Two-phase flow homogenization devices have been investigated and applied in other chemical processing industries. If the advanced sensor technology and the two-phase flow homogenization technology can be combined, we shall be able to develop a water/steam fraction sensor and install it in a homogeneous non-steady two-phase flow environment to measure flow data of each individual production well in real-time. Here, Reaction Engineering International (REI) is teaming up with Energy & Geoscience Institute (EGI) at the University of Utah to develop a novel approach to accurately measure the water/steam fraction in a geothermal production well in real-time, where an accurate measurement of the density of the mixture is critical yet challenging due to the non-homogeneous and non-steady two-phase flow feature of the fluid coming out the production well. A bubble flow reactor is designed, machined, and assembled for this study. A homogenization device that produces a homogeneous water/steam two-phase flow is designed. The initial testing shows that the measurement from the newly developed sensor system is consistent with the designed conditions. Further improvements are still needed to increase the accuracy of measurement.