Fabian Nitschke

• PhD
• Senior Researcher at Karlsruhe Institute of Technology

Functional nanoparticles emerged as potential new tracers for geoscientific applications, such as geothermal reservoir exploration. In this study, optimization strategies based on DLVO, extended DLVO (XDLVO) and filtration theory are presented. Our results show that nanoparticle material should have a low Hamaker constant, making metallic nanoparti...

This study analyzes the economic potential of raw materials that can be produced from the thermal waters of Chile. Beyond the widely known energetic potential of geothermal systems, a combined raw material production could add economic value to geothermal projects and enable micro-invasive mining processes using renewable energy. Raw materials such...

The challenges of climate change necessitate a shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources, with a particular need for sustainable base load-capable energies. Geothermal energy emerges as a promising solution, offering ecological and economic benefits with a growing installed capacity globally. In 2021, geothermal electricity capacity reach...

This study provides background information on the potential for lithium production from geothermal fluids in Germany. Growing demand and dependence on poorly diversified overseas sources point toward the high strategic importance of domestic resources within Germany and the EU. Potentially lower CO2 emissions and reduced land use during lithium pro...

This study assesses the status of currently available extraction technologies for lithium recovery from geothermal waters based on recent scientific studies and identifies potential technical challenges. Available technologies are evaluated in terms of their applicability and integrability in geothermal energy production. Current research projects...

Im MALEG Verbundprojekt wird an der Effizienzsteigerung von geothermischer Energieproduktion mit Hilfe von künstlicher Intelligenz geforscht. In diesem Zusammenhang wird sowohl ein Digitaler Zwilling des Geothermiekraftwerks, mit dessen Sensoren und Aktoren, als auch ein Digitaler Zwilling der hydrogeochemischen Prozesse innerhalb des Thermalwasser...

Tracer tests are an important tool for characterizing and monitoring subsurface reservoir properties. However, they are limited both because of the tracer molecules constraining factors such as irreversible adsorption, retention, and degradations, i.e. interaction processes of fluorophore molecule with surrounding media resulting in a large variati...

Mesoporous silica nanoparticles hosting guest molecules are a versatile tool with applications in various fields such as life and environmental sciences. Current commonly applied pore blocking strategies are not universally applicable and are often not robust enough to withstand harsh ambient conditions (e.g. geothermal). In this work, a titania la...

Thermal energy storage at large scale has significant potential for large scale clean energy deployment. However, it is necessary to understand and address the challenges (Dobson et al., 2023) associated with high temperature reservoir thermal energy storage (HT-RTES). Lessons learned from the previous demonstrations identify insufficient site char...

Geothermal fluids are a proven resource for sustainable baseload energy worldwide. Recently the fluids circulated in large volume streams in geothermal power plants have also come into focus for the potential of raw material extraction, such as Lithium. Geothermal fluids are the product of high-temperature and high-pressure water-rock interaction....

Solute artificial neural network geothermometers offer the possibility to overcome the complexity given by the solute-mineral composition. Herein, we present a new concept, trained from high-quality hydrochemical data and verified by in-situ temperature measurements with a total of 208 data pairs of geochemical input parameters (Na+, K+, Ca2+, Mg2+...

Möglichen Effizienzsteigerungen von geothermischer Energieproduktion durch Verringerung der Reinjektionstemperatur stehen meist hydrochemische Randbedingungen entgegen. Hoch mineralisierte Thermalwässer tendieren verstärkt zu unkontrollierten Mineralausfällung (Scalings) bei größerer Druckentlastung oder Abkühlung. Sie sind ein stark limitierender...

Accurate quantification of spatially resolved fluid flow within fractures is crucial for successful reservoir development, such as Enhanced Geothermal Systems. This study presents an innovative workflow designed to model and characterize preferential flow paths (channels) within rough‐walled shear fractures. A set of 30 rough‐walled self‐affine fra...

Lithium (Li) is considered a crucial element for energy transition due to its current irreplace-ability in Li-ion batteries, particularly in electric vehicles. Market analysis indicates that Germany's future automotive sector and planned battery cell production will necessitate significant quantities of global lithium production. At the same time,...

Solute artificial neural network geothermometers offer the possibility to overcome the complexity given by the solute-mineral composition. Herein, we present a new concept, trained from high-quality hydrochemical data and verified by in-situ temperature measurements with a total of 208 data pairs of geochemical input parameters (Na, K, Ca, Mg, Cl,...

Numerical simulation of two-phase multicomponent flows requires solving continuity, momentum, energy, and transport equations. Typically, these conservation equations are solved for computing the main variables of pressure, enthalpy, velocity, and composition. Variation of thermophysical properties (e.g., density, viscosity, etc.) as functions of t...

Geothermometry is constituted one of the most important geochemical tools for reservoir exploration and development. Solute geothermometers are used to estimate the temperature in the subsurface. Therefore, the chemical composition of a discharging geothermal fluid is used to infer the temperature of the reservoir. Changes in the chemical compositi...

Silica nanoparticles have become an important tool in material sciences, nanomedicine, biotechnology, and pharmaceutics, with recent suggested applications also in environmental sciences. In life and environmental sciences, the application field is usually aqueous media; however, the crucial issue of silica nanoparticle dissolution behavior and rat...

Heat for industrial processes and housing is an important part of the energy consumption. In Germany it accounts for more than 50 % of the total demand. The need for a sustainable heat production and/or the use of existing waste heat is key for the energy transition. Many industrial applications produce large amounts of heat, which cannot be used i...

Accurate knowledge of reservoir geometry and flow paths are critical parameters for successful geothermal operations. They are essential for evaluating the long-term behavior and sustainability of geothermal reservoirs. Conventional hydraulic testing and tracer tests are often inconclusive or provide limited information due to complex and challengi...

In this study, we introduce MulT_predict as a fully integrated solute multicomponent geothermometer, combining numerical optimisation processes for sensitive parameters to back-calculate to chemical reservoir conditions. This results in a state of the art geothermometer, providing an accurate reservoir temperature estimation validated by geothermal...

Geothermometry is constituted as one of the most important geochemical tools for reservoir exploration and development. Solute geothermometers are used to estimate the temperature in the subsurface. Therefore, the chemical composition of a discharging geothermal fluid is used to infer the temperature of the reservoir. Conventional solute geothermom...

This study assesses the status of currently available extraction technologies for lithium recovery from geothermal waters based on recent scientific studies and identifies potential technical challenges. Available technologies such as liquid-liquid extraction, selective extraction by inorganic sorbents, electrochemical methods, and membrane technol...

This study provides background information on the potential of future lithium production from geothermal fluids in Germany. Growing demand and the dependence on poorly diversified overseas sources point toward a high strategic importance of domestic resources. Potentially lower CO2 emissions and reduced areal use during lithium production are addit...

In this study, we introduce MulT_predict as a fully integrated solute multicomponent geothermometer, combining numerical optimisation processes for sensitive parameters to back-calculate on chemical reservoir conditions. This results in a state of the art geothermometer, providing accurate reservoir temperature estimation validated at geothermal bo...

Conventional methods to estimate the static formation temperature (SFT) require borehole temperature data measured during thermal recovery periods. This can be both economically and technically prohibitive under real operational conditions, especially for high-temperature boreholes. This study investigates the use of temperature logs obtained under...

The work presented here offers an approach to estimate the technological status of lithium extraction from geothermal waters in Germany based on current scientific studies, as well as to evaluate the associated challenges. For this purpose, the predicted worldwide lithium market, as well as the enormously increasing German demand due to the planned...

The energy transition and the associated need for non-energy, mineral raw materials have prompted the German government to expand research and development activities along the entire value chain. It is well known that the highly mineralized thermal waters that circulate during the extraction of geothermal energy have, in some cases, significant enr...

Plain Language Summary The movement of fluid and heat through fractured rocks is massively affected by the void space of the contributing fractures and the velocity of the fluid. The opposing offset of the two fracture surfaces creates complex and variable void geometries. A calculation of the expected flow rates is very difficult. In most studies,...

The BrineMine Project is a German-Chilean multidisciplinary research project realized by research and industry partners. The focus is developing strategies for raw material and water extraction from geothermal springs (Brine Mining) in Chile. The topics can be separated into a geological/geochemical part and a mechanical engineering part, which are...

The BrineMine project is a 3-year BMBF-funded research project that scientifically investigates the material use of geothermal water. The project is a bi-national research project between German and Chilean research and industry partners. The project is divided into two main topics: 1) Determination of the potential of thermal waters with regard to...

The detailed knowledge of the hydraulic properties is crucial for the assessment of geothermal reservoirs. In the case of Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS), fluid flow occurs along complex networks of faults and fractures that connect two or more boreholes. The geometric appearance and properties of these fractures are highly variable. They can be...

The inaccessibility of geological reservoirs, both for oil and gas production or geothermal usage, makes detection of reservoir properties and conditions a key problem in the field of reservoir engineering, including for the development of geothermal power plants. Herein, an approach is presented for the development of messenger nanoparticles for t...

For successful geothermal reservoir exploration, accurate temperature estimation is essential. Since reservoir temperature estimation frequently involves high uncertainties when using conventional solute geothermometers, a new statistical approach is proposed. The focus of this study is on the development of a new multicomponent geothermometer tool...

The quantification of fluid flow in rough fractures is of high interest for reservoir engineering, especially for deep geothermal applications. Herein, rough self-affine fractures are stochastically generated with incremental shear displacement and geometrically described by two aperture definitions, the vertical aperture \( a_{\text{vert}} \) and...

Temperature logs have important applications in the geothermal industry such as the estimation of the static formation temperature (SFT) and the characterization of fluid loss from a borehole. However, the temperature distribution of the wellbore relies on various factors such as wellbore flow conditions, fluid losses, well layout, heat transfer me...

For a successful geothermal reservoir exploration, an in-situ temperature estimation is essential. Since geothermometric reservoir temperature estimations using conventional solute geothermometers often entail high uncertainties, a new computational approach is proposed. The goal was to obtain high-accuracy multicomponent reservoir temperature esti...

Boreholes under dynamic conditions are a highly non-linear and complexly coupled thermo-hydraulic system. Multiple parameters, for instance, temperature, pressure, specific heat, enthalpy, viscosity, flow regime, heat transfer, degassing, steam quality and salinity are inter connected. Production and injection often entail several engineering chall...

For a successful geothermal reservoir exploration, an in-situ temperature estimation is essential. Since geothermometric reservoir temperature estimations often entail high uncertainties, statistical approaches are used. The focus is on the application of sensitive analyses on a basalt specific mineral set as multicomponent geothermometer to estima...

Geothermal brines with high CO2-contents require special treatments during the production of geothermal energy. Released into the atmosphere, the high emissions can cause a worse environmental damage for geothermal energy than for energy derived by the usage of fossil fuels (Aksoy et al. 2015). Besides the environmental impact, the CO2 also negativ...

The poster shows the application of multicomponent geothermometry to estimate the reservoir temperature in Krafla and Námafjall geothermal fields (Iceland) and the validation of the method by comparing the estimations to in-situ temperature measurements of the reservoir.

Solute geothermometry often leads to a broad range and often inconsistent calculated reservoir temperatures, in particular when exploring geothermal systems, where only limited information (geology, borehole data etc.) is available. The application of different Na-K and SiO2 geothermometer, the most widely used methods, not uncommonly lead to devia...

Besides temperature, mineralogy, residence time and dilution are crucial for assessing water-rock interaction intensity. The geothermal system at the Villarrica-Quetrupillán-Lanín volcanic chain, Southern Chile, is located across a prominent lithological transition from plutonic rocks of the North Patagonian Batholith (NPB) to volcano-sedimentary u...

The determination of reservoir temperatures represents a major task when exploring geothermal systems. Since the uncertainties of classical solute geothermometry are still preventing reliable reservoir temperature estimations, we assess the performance of classical geothermometers and multicomponent geothermometry by applying them to fluids compose...

The Villarrica-Quetrupillán-Lanín volcanic chain is surrounded by > 20 hot springs, located on the flanks and in the valleys around the volcanos. The hot springs that are extensively used for spa purpose discharge thermal water of intermediate temperatures (27° – 81°C), mostly alkaline pH and low mineralization. To investigate fluid origin and gene...

Geothermal energy has the potential to play a substantial role in the future energy mix. It combines full controllability, the capability to serve baseload demands and suitability for decentralized usage. Particularly important in the transition time towards fossil fuel free energy generation, the quasi-inexhaustible energy source can therefore rep...

Exploring a geothermal system the determination of reservoir temperatures is a major task. Unfavorably, the uncertainties of classical solute geothermometry are still large preventing reliable reservoir temperature estimations. In this study results of laboratory experiments are presented, equilibrating two reservoir rock analogues from the Villarr...

Using abandoned wells from oil and gas industry or dry holes, geothermal single well applications enable the prevention of drilling costs and prospecting risks which are crucial inhibitions in geothermal development. Recently, deep geothermal single wells were numerically investigated for their thermal and hydraulic performance. For the first time,...

The potential to provide base-load electricity as well as industrial and domestic heat places geothermal energy in a unique position in the future energy mix. As estimated by the International Energy Agency, geothermal power can contribute to 3.5% to the worldwide power and 3.9% to heat production by 2050. This includes the development of Enhanced...

Chile has a huge potential for the utilization of geothermal energy that is mostly associated with active volcanism. This resource has remained largely untapped so far but efforts on geothermal exploration have been increased recently. In the vicinity of Mt. Villarrica a variety of hot natural springs occur which manifest a complex geothermal syste...

Scaling formation in surface installations of geothermal power plants can substantially affect power production by impairing heat transfer and reducing pipe diameters. In addition, the mineral deposits can incorporate naturally occurring radioactive nuclides into the crystal lattice during precipitation and have to be regarded as a potential hazard...