The GFZ Helmholtz Centre for Geosciences is the national research centre for Earth sciences in Germany. Research at the GFZ focuses on the geosphere within the highly complex System Earth with its further subsystems, its interacting subcycles, and its wide network of cause-and-effect chains. This we do in a close interdisciplinary collaboration with the related scientific disciplines physics, mathematics, chemistry, and biology as well as with the engineering sciences disciplines of rock mechanics, engineering hydrology and seismology.
My research group, Hydrothermal Energy, focuses on the exploration, development, utilization, and integration of hydrothermal reservoirs within urban geothermal energy concepts. Our work encompasses the development of exploration methods, subsurface process modeling, and the integration of these models into surface-level simulations. We characterize potential reservoirs through field studies, borehole investigations (including borehole geophysics and testing), and laboratory analyses (rock physics and geochemistry). These data are incorporated into comprehensive (numerical) 3D/4D geothermal models. Our petrophysical characterization includes the assessment of hydraulic, thermal, and mechanical properties under (simulated) in-situ conditions. We have particular expertise in the temporal and cross-scale thermal analysis, integrated evaluation, and monitoring of the subsurface.