A review of solar and geothermal applications of renewable energy-driven enhanced oil recovery

This critical review explores status, technical configurations, and feasibility of integrating geothermal and solar energy sources for Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR) activities. Traditional thermal EOR activities, most prominently steam injection activities such as steam flooding and cyclic steam stimulation (CSS), have a recorded utilization of between 0.25–0.3 MMBtu of natural gases per all-recoverable-barrel of crude, equating to more than 0.3–0.5 tons of CO₂ emissions per all-recoverable-barrel. As a panacea to this quandary, renewable-powered EOR has proven a viable solution. At its center, Oman's Glass Point Mirah solar plant reflects that covered or protected parabolic trough technologies hold humongous potential in supplying more than 1,000 MTh of steam while registering remarkable reductions in utilization of natural gases. Analogously, geothermal utilization in California's San Joaquin Valley has registered humongous reductions in utilization of fossil fuels through utilization of co-produced geothermal fluids for injection of heat. Hybrid configurations of solar-geothermal have also had their assessment, which, upon simulations of variously modeled configurations, are able to register utilization reductions of natural gases by a maximum rate of 80% while realizing payback periods of 4.7 years for optimal configurations. Though steeped in promising results, full-scale adoption faces technical barriers premised upon thermal utilization, corrosion barriers emanating premised upon geothermal brines, initial high investments, and few policy advantages. Technological innovations including advanced thermal storage, corrosion-proofing, and modulable solar-geothermal systems are here identified here as influential activators. Pilot-scale demonstrations, lifecycle assessments, and robust policy climates are also here recommended towards improvement upon adoption rate. Such synthesis here positions solar and geothermal-powered EOR on the viable but little-exploited pathway towards upstream crude production's decarbonizing.