Emerson Phillips
Geothermal energy is a promising source of sustainable energy that remains largely untapped, due primarily to the depth which must be dug to access it.
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That could soon be changing. In a big way.
An energy company named Quaise will attempt to clear that hurdle with revolutionary new technology. Quaise will use a gyrotron – a vacuum tube that creates electromagnetic radiation by shaking electrons inside a magnetic field – to tap 12 miles into the Earth.
Developed by researchers at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center, the hybrid deep drilling technology will circumvent some of the classic struggles of drilling. So far, man has only drilled about 7.5 miles down. Metal bits are unable to withstand the extreme heat of approximately 930°F found at 12 miles beneath the surface, so to achieve their record-setting goal the team will burn rather than drill.
“Our gyrotron-powered drilling platform vaporizes boreholes through rock and provides access to deep geothermal heat without complex downhole equipment,” reads Quaise’s website.
Here’s how it works: The gyrotron burns a hole through very hot, dense rock. Water is then be pumped downwards, where it quickly vaporizes into steam, which powers the electrical plant.
Quaise believes geothermal energy could provide 8.3% of global energy and as many as 40 countries fully. And while geothermal energy can have environmental side effects, it is substantially better for the planet than coal and oil-based energy.
This is an interesting concept from a Drilling Engineering perspective. I have a huge range of questions and I am interested to learn more. Perhaps some readers and the authors can contribute to educate us on these issues?
1. How does this equipment operate in the ‘drilling’ phase?
2. How is the equipment deployed and what design features enables the deployment mechanism to withstand the heat at extreme depth?
3. How is over pressured rock pore spaces (pore pressure) managed? With conventional drilling, the density of the drilling fluid, sometimes combined with applied surface pressure, is used to ensure the pore fluids do not flow to surface in an uncontrolled manner (aka blowout).
4. Are conventional well designs and operations used to drill the well some depth before deploying the Quaise technology?
5. How is the heat (steam) preserved from depth to surface in the well during the production operations phase?
6. What are the primary features of the well architecture when the well is completed for ‘production’? How do you account for well integrity considering the extreme conditions (temperature extremes from initial as installed condition to production conditions)?
7. What phase is this project currently in? Have prototypes been tested? Have detailed well ‘drilling’ operations plans been developed and reviewed? What sort of risks have been identified and what are plans to control and mitigate those risks?
Most of all…how the heck can I help? This technology is exciting for a retired drilling engineer and drilling engineering managers perspective.
Many of these questions are answered on the Quaise Energy web site. https://www.quaise.energy/ Although the functional capability of the drilling technology has been demonstrated it has yet to be demonstrated at depth. A pilot project to test the ideas is in the development stages and I believe funding has been secured.