Heat and mass transport during a groundwater replenishment trial in a highly heterogeneous aquifer

Abstract

Changes in subsurface temperature distribution resulting from the injection of fluids into aquifers may impact physiochemical and microbial processes as well as basin resource management strategies. We have completed a 2 year field trial in a hydrogeologically and geochemically heterogeneous aquifer below Perth, Western Australia in which highly treated wastewater was injected for large-scale groundwater replenishment. During the trial, chloride and temperature data were collected from conventional monitoring wells and by time-lapse temperature logging. We used a joint inversion of these solute tracer and temperature data to parameterize a numerical flow and multispecies transport model and to analyze the solute and heat propagation characteristics that prevailed during the trial. The simulation results illustrate that while solute transport is largely confined to the most permeable lithological units, heat transport was also affected by heat exchange with lithological units that have a much lower hydraulic conductivity. Heat transfer by heat conduction was found to significantly influence the complex temporal and spatial temperature distribution, especially with growing radial distance and in aquifer sequences with a heterogeneous hydraulic conductivity distribution. We attempted to estimate spatially varying thermal transport parameters during the data inversion to illustrate the anticipated correlations of these parameters with lithological heterogeneities, but estimates could not be uniquely determined on the basis of the collected data.

Identification and quantification of redox and pH buffering processes in a heterogeneous, low carbonate aquifer during managed aquifer recharge

“…The investigations addressed both its technical feasibility and also its societal acceptance. The water quality evolution of the injectant in the targeted interval of the Leederville aquifer (Figure ) was observed at 20 monitoring locations arranged in five well clusters at variable distances and directions from the injection well [ Seibert et al ., ]. In this area the Leederville aquifer consists of siliciclastic, paralic sediments mostly encompassing the Wanneroo Member of the Cretaceous Leederville Formation [ Descourvieres et al ., a; Leyland , ].…”

The use of salinity contrast for density difference compensation to improve the thermal recovery efficiency in high-temperature aquifer thermal energy storage systems

“…6) affects heat transport, resulting in faster advective solute transport than heat transport during injection operations (e.g. Miotliński and Dillon 2015;Seibert et al 2014). Therefore, plume separation of hot water (see Eq.…”

Colloid release and clogging in porous media: Effects of solution ionic strength and flow velocity

“…However, when advanced treatment such as reverse osmosis results in source water for recharge with a low ionic strength (IS), the corresponding changes in solution chemistry (decrease in IS) raise the potential for clogging via in-situ colloid release and transport. Emerging large-scale applications of MAR in Australia involve well injection of low IS source water (e.g., domestic wastewater and industrial A C C E P T E D M A N U S C R I P T ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 4 wastewater produced during coal seam gas recovery) into sandstone aquifers (Seibert et al, 2014). In addition, when well injection techniques are utilized for recharge, there can be considerable spatial and temporal variability in flow rate due to the applied injection pressure, periods of intermittent flow and periodic surging or back-washing to remediate near-well clogging.…”