- Start: 01/10/2018
- End: 30/09/2022
The goal of this project is to advance the ability to provide cleaner and cost-effective non-carbon emitting geothermal energy across Europe and the World. The core of GECO is the application of innovative technologies, recently developed and proved successfully at pilot scale in Iceland, that can limit the production of emissions from geothermal plants by condensing and reinjecting gases or turning them into commercial products. The approach is to capture and inject the soluble gases in the exhaust stream as dissolved aqueous phase. This low pH provokes the dissolution of subsurface rocks, increasing reservoir permeability and the fixation of the dissolved gases as stable mineral phases. To both increase public acceptance and generalize this approach, GECO will be applied in four distinct geothermal plants: 1) a high temperature basaltic reservoir in Iceland, 2) a high temperature gneiss reservoir in Italy, 3) a high temperature volcano-clastic reservoir in Turkey and 4) a low temperature granitic reservoir in Germany.
A detailed and consistent monitoring program, geochemical analysis and comprehensive modelling will be also considered to characterize the reactivity and consequences of fluid flow in the geologically diverse field and allow at creating more accurate tools to predict the reactions occurring in the geothermal systems under different operation conditions (temperature, fluid compositions).
The role of AIMEN is the design, development and implementation of corrosion monitoring systems based in electrochemical techniques and FBG's to control the corrosion performance of geothermal installations under real working conditions.
**This Project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement nº 818169. The dissemination of results herein reflects only the author's view and the European Commission is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.
- Sectors: Energy, Geothermal, Wind energy
- Financing programme: Horizon 2020
- R&D&i: Materials under extreme conditions
- Partners: AIMEN Centro Tecnológico, CENTRE NATIONAL DE LA RECHERCHE SCIENTIFIQUE (CNRS), ISOR - ISLENSKAR ORKURANNSOKNIR, GEORG-RANNSOKNARKLASI I JARDHITA, UNIVERSITY OF ICELAND, IFP - ENERGIES NOUVELLES, UNIVERSITY OF FLORENCE, GRAZIELLA GREEN POWER SPA, STORENGY SA, Fundación CIRCE, PLAN B CO2 BV, ZORLU ENERJI ELEKTRIK URETIM AS, UKRI - United Kingdom Resarch and Innovation, METU - Middle East Technical University, CNR - CONSIGLIO NAZIONALE DELLE RICERCHE, BOCHUM UNIVERSITY OF APPLIED SCIENCE, IFE - INSTITUTT FOR ENERGITEKNIKK
- Acronym: GECO
- Ambit: International
- Web: https://geco-h2020.eu/
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