HIP-RA User Guide

HIP-RA (Heat In Place - Resource Assessment) estimates the geothermal energy resource of a reservoir using the volumetric heat-in-place method. Given reservoir temperature, area, thickness and porosity, it calculates stored heat, recoverable heat, and producible electricity.

The method follows Muffler & Cataldi (1978)[1] and the reexamination by Garg & Combs (2011)[2].

HIP-RA-X is the successor version to HIP-RA. HIP-RA-X reports results broken down by reservoir, rock and fluid.

Input File

Input files are plain text with one parameter per line, in the form Parameter Name, value:

Reservoir Temperature, 212.5
Rejection Temperature, 60.0
Reservoir Porosity, 10.0
Reservoir Area, 109930 acre
Reservoir Thickness, 0.25
Reservoir Life Cycle, 25

A unit may follow the value, as with Reservoir Area above. Values are converted to the parameter’s preferred units in the output — 109,930 acres is reported as 444.87 km**2. If no unit is given, the preferred unit is assumed.

Temperatures in Fahrenheit must be written as degF; F is interpreted as farads.

All parameters have defaults, so a minimal input file is valid. See the Parameters Reference for the full list, defaults and permitted ranges.

Running from the command line

Ensure you have installed the GEOPHIRES package (pip install "git+https://github.com/NREL/GEOPHIRES-X" if consuming as a pip package or pip install -e . if developing locally). Then run:

python -m hip_ra_x <path to input file>

Example:

(venv) ➜  my-geophires-project python -mhip_ra_x my-hip-ra-x-input-parameters.txt
                               *********************
                               ***HIP CASE REPORT***
                               *********************

      ***SUMMARY OF INPUTS***
      Reservoir Temperature:       212.50 degC
      Rejection Temperature:        60.00 degC
      Reservoir Porosity:           10.00 %
      Reservoir Area:              444.87 km**2
      Reservoir Thickness:           0.25 kilometer
      Reservoir Life Cycle:         25.00 yr
      Rock Heat Capacity:        2.84e+12 kJ/km**3C
      Fluid Specific Heat Capacity:       4.27 kJ/kgC
      Density Of Reservoir Fluid:   8.93e+11 kg/km**3
      Density Of Reservoir Rock:   2.55e+12 kg/km**3
      Recoverable Fluid Factor:       0.50
      Recoverable Heat from Rock:       0.75

      ***SUMMARY OF RESULTS***
      Reservoir Depth:               6.58 kilometer
      Reservoir Pressure:           64.56 MPa
      Reservoir Volume (reservoir):     111.22 km**3
      Reservoir Volume (rock):     100.10 km**3
      Recoverable Volume (recoverable fluid):       5.56 km**3
      Stored Heat (reservoir):   3.56e+16 kJ
      Stored Heat (rock):        3.25e+16 kJ
      Stored Heat (fluid):       3.14e+15 kJ
      Mass of Reservoir (rock):   2.55e+14 kilogram
      Mass of Reservoir (fluid):   5.65e+13 kilogram
      Specific Enthalpy (reservoir):     282.10 kJ/kg
      Specific Enthalpy (rock):     169.84 kJ/kg
      Specific Enthalpy (fluid):     112.26 kJ/kg
      Recovery Factor (reservoir):      11.74 %
      Available Heat (reservoir):   6.34e+15 kJ
      Producible Heat (reservoir):   4.18e+15 kJ
      Producible Heat/Unit Area (reservoir):   9.40e+12 kJ/km**2
      Producible Heat/Unit Volume (reservoir):   3.76e+13 kJ/km**3
      Producible Electricity (reservoir):    3155.91 MW
      Producible Electricity/Unit Area (reservoir):       7.09 MW/km**2
      Producible Electricity/Unit Volume (reservoir):      28.38 MW/km**3

Running from Python

from pathlib import Path
import json

from hip_ra import HipRaInputParameters
from hip_ra_x import HipRaXClient


def run_hip_ra_x():
    client = HipRaXClient()
    result = client.get_hip_ra_x_result(
        HipRaInputParameters(Path('hip-ra-x-area-acres.txt').absolute())
    )
    print(json.dumps(result.result, indent=2))


if __name__ == '__main__':
    run_hip_ra_x()

Parameters may also be passed directly as a dictionary instead of a file:

result = HipRaXClient().get_hip_ra_x_result(
    HipRaInputParameters(
        {
            'Reservoir Temperature': 250.0,
            'Rejection Temperature': 60.0,
            'Reservoir Porosity': 10.0,
            'Reservoir Area': 55.0,
            'Reservoir Thickness': 0.25,
            'Reservoir Life Cycle': 25,
        }
    )
)

Results are returned as a nested dictionary with two top-level keys, SUMMARY OF INPUTS and SUMMARY OF RESULTS, each mapping parameter names to their value and unit:

result.result['SUMMARY OF RESULTS']['Producible Electricity (reservoir)']
# {'value': 795.7, 'unit': 'MW'}

SUMMARY OF INPUTS includes any defaults applied and the results of any unit conversions, so it reflects the parameters actually used rather than only those supplied.

Set Print Output to Console to False to suppress the console report.

Example Output

Running the example input file above produces:

                         *********************
                         ***HIP CASE REPORT***
                         *********************

***SUMMARY OF INPUTS***
Reservoir Temperature:       212.50 degC
Rejection Temperature:        60.00 degC
Reservoir Porosity:           10.00 %
Reservoir Area:              444.87 km**2
Reservoir Thickness:           0.25 kilometer
Reservoir Life Cycle:         25.00 yr
Rock Heat Capacity:        2.84e+12 kJ/km**3C
Fluid Specific Heat Capacity:       4.27 kJ/kgC
Density Of Reservoir Fluid:   8.93e+11 kg/km**3
Density Of Reservoir Rock:   2.55e+12 kg/km**3
Recoverable Fluid Factor:       0.50
Recoverable Heat from Rock:       0.75

***SUMMARY OF RESULTS***
Reservoir Depth:               6.58 kilometer
Reservoir Pressure:           64.56 MPa
Reservoir Volume (reservoir):     111.22 km**3
Reservoir Volume (rock):     100.10 km**3
Recoverable Volume (recoverable fluid):       5.56 km**3
Stored Heat (reservoir):   3.56e+16 kJ
Stored Heat (rock):        3.25e+16 kJ
Stored Heat (fluid):       3.14e+15 kJ
Mass of Reservoir (rock):   2.55e+14 kilogram
Mass of Reservoir (fluid):   5.65e+13 kilogram
Specific Enthalpy (reservoir):     282.10 kJ/kg
Specific Enthalpy (rock):     169.84 kJ/kg
Specific Enthalpy (fluid):     112.26 kJ/kg
Recovery Factor (reservoir):      11.74 %
Available Heat (reservoir):   6.34e+15 kJ
Producible Heat (reservoir):   4.18e+15 kJ
Producible Heat/Unit Area (reservoir):   9.40e+12 kJ/km**2
Producible Heat/Unit Volume (reservoir):   3.76e+13 kJ/km**3
Producible Electricity (reservoir):    3155.91 MW
Producible Electricity/Unit Area (reservoir):       7.09 MW/km**2
Producible Electricity/Unit Volume (reservoir):      28.38 MW/km**3

Interpreting the Results

The report has two sections. Summary of Inputs echoes the parameters used, including any defaults applied and any unit conversions performed. Summary of Results gives the calculated resource estimate.

The calculation proceeds from reservoir geometry to recoverable energy:

• Reservoir Volume — area multiplied by thickness, split into rock and fluid fractions according to porosity.

• Stored Heat — total thermal energy in the reservoir relative to the rejection temperature, reported separately for rock and fluid.

• Recovery Factor — the proportion of stored heat that can be extracted at the wellhead.

• Available Heat and Producible Heat — the recoverable energy, and the portion convertible to useful output over the reservoir life cycle.

• Producible Electricity — the electrical capacity implied by the producible heat and the utilisation efficiency.

Per-unit-area and per-unit-volume figures allow comparison between prospects of different size.

See Outputs in the Parameters Reference for the full list of outputs and their default units.

Web Interface

HIP-RA is available in the web interface at gtp.scientificwebservices.com/hip-ra.

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Footnotes

[1]

Heat in Place calculation: Muffler, P., and Raffaele Cataldi. “Methods for regional assessment of geothermal resources.” Geothermics 7.2-4 (1978): 53-89.

[2]

Garg, S.K. and J. Combs. 2011. A Reexamination of the USGS Volumetric “Heat in Place” Method. Stanford University, 36th Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering; SGP-TR-191, 5 pp.