Optimal experimental design for finding optimally located boreholes in geothermal engineering.

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Abstract

An obstacle for further commercial utilization of deep geothermal resources is the high cost for deep drilling in regard to the productivity risk of a well. Minimizing the risk by optimizing the location of a well is thus a question of primary importance. For a given geological model of a reservoir, we demonstrate how this problem may be tackled by a mathematical optimization approach called optimal experimental design. We show how this problem can be mathematically derived, numerically formulated, and practically implemented using distributed computing. We discuss an example for a sedimentary geothermal reservoir with multiple lithological units. We show how optimized positions of boreholes can be determined such that uncertainty of estimating the hydraulic permeability of a target rock unit from temperature measurements is minimized.