Field Scale Laboratory

For a successful market launch of complex technology lines, a demonstration under real "field conditions" is indispensable. Individual technologies that have proven themselves in the laboratory will therefore be applied in a systemic network in our field scale laboratories. The demonstration will assist the transfer from research to the market applications. 

One of the main sources of CO2 is the generation of electricity and heat through the combustion of fossil fuels. A large part of this generation capacity is accounted for by the lignite units in the Rhineland. The cities on the Rhine and Ruhr have the greatest demand for useful heat in Germany. This is where the largest European district heating system exists. Its conversion from coal to renewable energies can only succeed with the help of deep geothermal energy. However, the Rhenish mining area is also home to what is probably the largest hydrothermal reservoir in Europe: the Devonian and Lower Carboniferous mass and reef limestones. These rocks are already being used for energy purposes via deep boreholes in Belgium and the Netherlands. District heating networks, greenhouses, industrial plants and thermal baths there benefit from climate-friendly energy from thermal water-bearing strata. A Fraunhofer research power plant for deep geothermal energy is therefore being set up in the Rhineland at the site of RWE's Weisweiler lignite-fired power plant. The observatory currently under construction will be used to monitor reservoir processes. The research power plant will subsequently link technological innovations with new value creation potentials in the energy sector at one of the most ambitious research locations in the Rhineland. The demonstrator will extract hydrothermal water from the over 4000-metre-deep strata of the Devonian mass limestones beneath the power plant and feed it into the regional district heating network. The facility will serve as a development environment and nucleus of the deep geothermal industry with the aim of disseminating deep geothermal projects in Northwest Germany / Europe. At the same time, the facility will serve as an education and training centre for geothermal technology.

The TRUDI underground laboratory ("Deep down under the Ruhr") is a field scale laboratory for the exploration and large-scale development of hydrothermal potential in the Ruhr region. It is located in the 50-square-kilometre "Future Energy" field in the south of Bochum. TRUDI is also the flagship experiment for the decentralised storage and feed-in of thermal energy from geothermal waters from various sources into the district heating systems of the Rhine-Ruhr region, using the example of the Bochum-Süd district heating network (115 MWth). The laboratory also has test fields for carrying out drilling tests down to depths of over 5000 metres. The geology at the site is characterised by Carboniferous (sandstones, mudstones, coal) and, from about 4000 metres, Devonian formations (carbonates/mass limestones). Here, for example, reference wells can be drilled and reservoir techniques can be used to develop dense rock formations. The following underground infrastructure is available in the TRUDI area:

• Observatory (seismic, hydraulic, hydrochemical, thermal).
• Fraunhofer IEG - in-situ laboratory and drilling test field (Campus Fraunhofer IEG)
• Heat storage in small colliery under the IEG campus
• Klosterbusch Colliery surface gallery
• Dannenbaum & Prinz Regent mines (former OPEL site, today MARK 51°7).