The $1.62 million project, led by Professor Martin Hand and Dr Ros King, will produce maps of the distribution, orientation and connectivity of fractures in four key sedimentary basins around Australia to better understand the structural permeability in these regions.
Permeability affects how easily liquids and gases can move through and be extracted from the earth, including hot water that can be used to generate geothermal power.
The University of Adelaide’s South Australian Centre for Geothermal Energy Research, part of its Institute for Mineral and Energy Resources, will also develop a “toolkit” to assist developers to predict permeability pathways within critical Australian sedimentary basins and reduce the risks associated with drilling operations.
This information will join other knowledge discovered through ARENA-supported geothermal projects and serve as a go-to source for future developments, providing a head start on viability and risk assessments.
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