Geothermal energy is a clean and environmentally friendly energy source that can be used sustainably; however, attention towards geothermal energy has been intermittent during the last 40 years as a function of the crisis of oil price. However, geothermal reinjection and clogging has been a challenge limiting geothermal development and utilization. In China, widely distributed sandstone geothermal reservoirs have reduced production due to technical constraints such as excessive reinjection pressure and blockage. In this paper, we took the Binzhou sandstone geothermal field in North China as an example and conducted displacement experiments under different temperature and flow rate conditions by collecting in situ geothermal fluid and core rock to obtain changes in sandstone permeability. By comparing the variation in geochemical and mineral composition of geothermal fluids and cores before and after the experiments, combined with a water–rock interaction simulation, we investigated the reasons for the changes in permeability and porosity. The results show that high temperature and low flow rate have relatively minimal displacement pressure, and a flow rate of 1.0 mL/min at 45 °C shows a minimal effect on permeability, while 1.0 mL/min at 55 °C and 0.5 mL/min at 45 °C show a minimal effect on porosity. Flow rate is the main factor controlling permeability, while temperature demonstrated a relatively minor effect. The shift in permeability and porosity is mainly caused by the precipitation of quartz and the conversion of albite to montmorillonite. The injection of fluids at 55 °C may have dissolved additional minerals with a minimal change in porosity. However, the permeability reduction at 55 °C is greater than that at 45 °C, indicating that the blockage, which led to the permeability reduction, contains multiple causes, such as chemical and physical blockages. From the laboratory studies, we recommended that reinjected geothermal water be cooled or kept below the reservoir temperature before reinjection and at moderate flow conditions.

Geothermal reinjection is a new method of geothermal development which can maintain regional geothermal reservoir pressure, and it is conducive to the sustainable development and utilization of geothermal heat. However, geothermal reinjection blockage has always been a problem that restricts geothermal development and utilization, causing geothermal reservoirs, especially the attenuation of sandstone geothermal reservoirs. Considering an example of a typical sandstone geothermal reservoir in Binzhou, in this study, in situ geothermal fluids and borehole cores were collected to conduct automatic rotary reactor experiments under different temperature and acidification conditions in laboratory studies. The chemical compositions of geothermal fluids and core samples before and after the experiment were compared. The results show that both temperature and acid have significant effects on the water–rock interaction. The effect of temperature is mainly shown on mineral solubility, while the effect of acidification is shown in the increased dissolution of calcite and feldspar minerals. Compared with high temperature (65 °C) reinjection conditions, the calcite precipitation at a low temperature (45 °C) is largely reduced, but with larger total mineral volume changes, mainly due to the formation of montmorillonite. Therefore, from the laboratory studies, it is recommended to preform reinjection using a low-temperature fluid, without adding acids.

Based on the geothermal geology of Shenze Geothermal Reservoir, several methods were adopted to evaluate the geothermal resources of the Minghuazhen Group and the Guantao Group of Shenze Geothermal Reservoir respectively. The results show that the geothermal reserve is 1519.77×10¹⁶ J, among which the exploitable reserve of geothermal resources is 379.94×10¹⁶ J, the reserve of geothermal fluid is 35908.46×10⁶ m³, while the quantity of heat is 613.84×10¹⁶ J, the exploitable reserve of geothermal fluid is 3026.54×10⁶m³ and the quantity of heat is 52.75×10¹⁶ J. The existing status and problem of geothermal resources utilization were analyzed and suggestions on reasonable utilization were put forward.