Hot dry rock (HDR) is an important geothermal resource and the primary direction of future geothermal development. Granite is particularly rich in radiogenic heat-generating elements (e.g., U, Th, and K) and is thus the main target for HDR development worldwide. Southeastern China contains the most abundant granite distribution in the country and accounts for more than 40% of the total granite area. This paper analyzes the rock radiogenic heat production, geothermal flux, crustal thermal structure, and reservoir temperature in the key exploration areas based on a systematic investigation of the distribution of granite resources and their heat generation characteristics. A heat generation and accumulation model of HDR resources is proposed for southeastern China. The results show that southeastern China can be characterized by a quadratic heat gathering model that includes a mantle source heat supply, intracrustal heat generation, fracture heat transfer, and cover heat preservation. Among these, the radiogenic heat production of granite is one of the main factors that affects shallow geothermal fields in this region. Fracture structure and cover conditions also exert a strong control on the gathering and dissipation of underground heat. The widely distributed and high-heat-producing tuffs and fused tuffs in the Zhangzhou area offer promising heat-generating and heat-gathering conditions for future exploration and development of hot dry rock resources in the area. The results provide important insight on the genesis and heat control factors of HDR resources in southeastern China and a theoretical reference for future HDR resource exploration and development practices in the region.

There are abundant geothermal resources in the Xiong’an New Area, China. However, the thermal state and geothermal energy accumulation mechanism are not clear. Based on the geological conditions and the characteristics of the present geothermal field, a 2D model was established to analyze the process of mantle-derived heat conduction and to predict the distribution of the deep geothermal field. We calculated the terrestrial heat flow for the Rongcheng uplift and Niutuozhen uplift to be 64 and 75 mW/m², respectively. The geothermal resources in this area are controlled by a four-element model comprising heat conduction, structural uplift, large deep fractures, and convection within the reservoir.

Currently, water fracturing under deep geothermal conditions remains poorly understood because the reservoir rocks are usually high-strength crystalline rocks characterized by high temperatures. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of rock properties, injection rates, and temperatures on hydraulic fracturing behavior and the induced crack characteristics through experimental investigations. A series of hydraulic fracturing experiments was conducted on two Indosinian granite types to investigate the differences in hydraulic fracturing behavior caused by rock properties. Among others, six samples were tested under a room-temperature condition at different injection rates from 1 to 30 mL/min to clarify the effect of the injection rate and three samples were tested under a high-temperature condition (150 °C) to simulate specific geothermal environments. The results indicated that granites with different rock properties have different injection rate thresholds. When the injection rate is below the threshold, the injection pressure finally reached a constant value without fracturing. For rocks with the same properties, the temperature effect can lead to a high injection rate threshold due to the occurrence of thermally-induced cracks. The number of acoustic emission events recorded during the room-temperature experiments increased linearly with increasing injection rate, while high-temperature tests increased sharply. The investigation results imply that a complex hydraulically-induced crack network is expected to be achieved in geothermal reservoirs by a high injection rate or high temperature differences (between injected fluid and rock). Additionally, the characteristics of the hydraulically-induced cracks were investigated by cutting through the sample blocks and measuring the residual pressure. The results indicated that the induced crack aperture can maintain a fluid conductivity of 0.1–0.8 mm/s at a closure pressure of 12 MPa.

There are abundant geothermal resources in the Xiong’an New Area, China. Drilling has revealed a greater potential in the deep Gaoyuzhuang geothermal reservoir. However, the reservoir required acidification to increase its water production. In this study, three types of core samples with different mineral compositions from different depths in the target boreholes were selected for acid rock reaction experiments at the temperature of 40 °C, 60 °C, 80 °C and 100 °C, and pressure of 30 MPa. The kinetics of the acid rock reaction of the major minerals were modeled based on the transitional state theory. The kinetic parameters were obtained by comparing the modelling and experimental results. The results show that the lithology of the Gaoyuzhuang reservoir is primarily dolomite. The dissolution ratio for 15 wt.% HCl reached 84.1% on average for the rock fragments. Temperature has a significant effect on the dissolution rate of the minerals. In the presence of HCl (acidic mechanism), the reaction rate constants of the dolomite, calcite and illite reached 2.4 × 10⁻⁴ mol/m²/s, 5.3 × 10⁻¹ mol/m²/s and 9.5 × 10⁻² mol/m²/s, respectively. The results of this study provide the basic parameters for the design and evaluation of field acidizing.