Well-Placement Optimization in an Enhanced Geothermal System Based on the Fracture Continuum Method and 0-1 Programming

Abstract

The well-placement of an enhanced geothermal system (EGS) is significant to its performance and economic viability because of the fractures in the thermal reservoir and the expensive cost of well-drilling. In this work, a numerical simulation and genetic algorithm are combined to search for the optimization of the well-placement for an EGS, considering the uneven distribution of fractures. The fracture continuum method is used to simplify the seepage in the fractured reservoir to reduce the computational expense of a numerical simulation. In order to reduce the potential well-placements, the well-placement optimization problem is regarded as a 0-1 programming problem. A 2-D assumptive thermal reservoir model is used to verify the validity of the optimization method. The results indicate that the well-placement optimization proposed in this paper can improve the performance of an EGS.