The spin-off project fluxtec provides innovative soil gas analytics for reliable exploration and sustainable use of geothermal resources, monitoring of gas storage systems and advanced early warning systems for geohazards in volcanically and tectonically active regions. The value of our research and development has been demonstrated in international projects with industry partners over the past 10 years. fluxtec is currently funded by Helmholtz Enterprise.

Objective

The exploration phase in geothermal projects is of utmost importance, as the results indicate whether or not a geothermal resource is viable for exploitation. Our future services have the primary goal to identify and characterize permeable fluid pathways, which is key to optimized planning of geothermal wells. We intend to reduce the financial risk in the early phase of geothermal exploration before investing into boreholes. fluxtec plans to support engineers and decision makers in evaluating a potential reservoir and further planning of drilling operations. We provide fast, real-time and multiscale solutions even in some of the most difficult terrain.

Approach

The sampling concept is specifically defined according to the individual needs in each project. It includes measurements of gas emission rates and gas concentrations at depths <1 m across areas up to 50 km². For our field studies we use a wide range of different technologies such as mobile gas chromatographs, infrared detectors and alpha spectrometer to measure even smallest gas emissions and concentrations at selected sites (e.g. carbon dioxide, methan, radon). We are also able to perform long-term monitoring, which is not only relevant for sustainable reservoir operations but also for early warning systems.