Imperial Life Cycle Network’s Journal Club

The pressing need to address climate change and reach Net-Zero by 2050 has intensified the pursuit of renewable energy sources. Geothermal energy, a reliable and abundant source, is fundamental to the renewable electricity sector, yet it encounters obstacles such as limited hydrothermal reservoirs and high exploration and drilling costs. The circular economy (CE) framework provides a promising avenue to enhance geothermal power generation by repurposing abandoned oil and gas wells (AOGWs). This research investigates the feasibility of this approach by delineating three systems: i) two completely repurposed AOGWs, ii) a single completely repurposed AOGW, and iii) repurposed semi-AOGWs, compared against a business-as-usual geothermal power plant. This talk will probe into the efficacy of incorporating the CE strategy into renewable power generation, with a focus on sustainability performance from environmental and economic perspectives. It will cover the work done on a cradle-to-grave environmental life cycle assessment of 20 indicators and a comprehensive life cycle costing analysis, which includes both internal and external costs. Results reveal that reducing exploration and drilling activities positively impacts eight environmental indicators and total costs. However, the performance does not uniformly enhance due to a myriad of factors, including system efficiency, operating lifetime, production flow rate, and the temperature difference between production and re-injection.