Hydraulic geofracture energy storage system with desalination
AssigneeQuidnet Energy Inc.
InventorsHoward K. Schmidt, Aaron H. Mandell
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Energy may be stored by injecting fluid into a fracture in the earth and producing the fluid back while recovering power and/or desalinating water. The method may be particularly adapted to storage of large amounts of energy such as in grid-scale electric energy systems. The fracture may be formed and treated with resin so as to limit fluid loss and to increase propagation pressure. The fluid may be water containing a dissolved salt or fresh water and a portion or all of the water may be desalinated using pressure in the water when it is produced.
Claims13
A method of controlling a quality of water used for storing and producing energy, comprising:
- pumping the water down a well and into a hydraulic fracture in a rock formation around the well to store energy;
- producing a portion of the water to provide a produced water up the well by reducing a pressure in the well before leak-off of the water from the hydraulic fracture;
- measuring an amount of dissolved solid in the produced water to obtain a measured quality;
- comparing the measured quality to a desired quality to obtain a compared quality;
- diverting a first portion of the produced water to a treating process to produce treated water, wherein the first portion is determined based on the compared quality;
- producing energy to provide a produced energy from a second portion of the produced water, wherein the second portion comprises the produced water less the first portion of produced water;
- combining the treated water with the second portion of produced water to produce combined water comprising the desired quality;
- and
- pumping the combined water down the well and into the hydraulic fracture in the rock formation around the well to store energy.
A method of storing and producing energy, comprising:
- pumping a fluid down a well to a depleted tight gas reservoir to flow to a tip of a fracture of the depleted tight gas reservoir;
- storing the fluid in the fracture as mechanical energy;
- and
- before leak-off of the fluid from the fracture, reducing pressure in the well so as to produce a portion of the fluid to provide a produced fluid up the well and allowing pressure of the produced fluid to produce power.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.