(GP/GT) for Additional Water Supply in the Lower Rio Grande

APPROACH
Interest is being expressed for a variety of applications that could
utilize the thermal and hydraulic energy that is available in
geopressured resources. As a result of that interest (and the continuing
development of DOE's geopressured program), various organizations,
institutions, firms, and individuals were contacted to aid in the
identification of potential uses that would be of interest to industry.
A literature search was conducted to determine what development has
occurred in using geopressured resources and the types of applications
utilized. From this preliminary investigation, Figure 1 was developed to
identify numerous potential uses and their approximate process
temperature requirements.
Additionally, a brief overview of the areas of interest and
development concerns were identified in integrated geopressured
applications.
Four areas of interest were selected to receive further evaluation.
These areas are:
1. direct uses application
2. supercritical fluid processing
3. hydraulic and thermal energy
4. thermally enhanced oil recovery.
This report addresses the feasibility of applying geopressured
resources to direct uses; the three remaining subjects are separate
feasibility studies. Selection criteria were established to limit the
number of direct use applications that would receive economic analysis.
These criteria are:
• Industry interest
• The greatest near-term impact
• Technical feasibility of the application.
Economic analyses were performed for two direct uses that best fit
the selection criteria.
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