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![]() by Staff Writers Boston MA (SPX) Nov 18, 2022
The heat miles beneath our feet-deep geothermal energy-could provide more than enough clean, renewable energy to meet world demand as we transition away from fossil fuels, according to a presenter at the inaugural TEDX Boston Planetary Stewardship Event held November 13-14. Timed to align with the United Nations' Climate Change Conference, the TEDX Boston event was "designed to spotlight actionable ideas for human activity to achieve a sustainable relationship with the planet's natural systems," according to the event's web site.
Great Potential Today, however, we can't drill deep enough to unlock that energy. "If we can get to ten miles down, we can start to find economic temperatures everywhere. And if we go even deeper, we can get to temperatures where water [pumped to the site] becomes supercritical," a steam-like phase that will allow "a step change improvement in the power production per well and so cheapen the cost of energy," Houde said. The deepest hole that's been drilled to date, the Kola borehole, went 7.6 miles down. It took 20 years to complete because conventional equipment like mechanical drill bits can't withstand the conditions at those depths. They break down. "And the truth is, we'll need hundreds if not thousands of Kola boreholes if we want to scale geothermal to the capacity that's needed," Houde said. Enter Quaise, which "is developing technology to blast rock with microwaves to potentially drill the deepest holes on Earth. And no, I'm not stealing a plot device from Star Trek. This technology is real and has been proven in [an MIT] lab," said Houde, who went on to describe the Quaise approach in more detail, the challenges involved, and progress to date.
Many Benefits Finally, Houde said, geothermal is "the perfect energy source to take advantage of the largest workforce in the world, the oil and gas industry." That industry has "11 million jobs in the US alone, and a skill set that is exactly what's needed for geothermal to rapidly scale."
Drilling with Microwaves The general technique was developed at MIT over the last 15 years. In the lab there scientists demonstrated that millimeter waves could indeed drill a hole in basalt. Further, the gyrotron machine that produces the millimeter wave energy is not new. It's been used for some 70 years in research toward nuclear fusion as an energy source. The Quaise technique also takes advantage of the conventional drilling technologies developed by the oil and gas industry. The company will use these to drill down through surface layers (what they were optimized for) to basement rock (which millimeter waves can easily power through). Houde explained that millimeter waves "are ideal for the hard, hot, crystalline rock deep down that conventional drilling struggles with." They are not as efficient in the softer rock closer to the surface, but "those are the same formations that conventional drilling excels at." Hence the company's hybrid approach to the problem.
Challenges Remain There are also engineering challenges that must be addressed. "Chief among them," said Houde, "how do we ensure full removal of the ash [created by the process] and transport that ash up the borehole over long distances?"
Progress to Date "Our current plan is to drill the first holes in the field in the next few years," Houde said. "And while we continue to advance the technology to drill deeper, we will also explore our first commercial geothermal projects in shallower settings."
![]() ![]() Crystals generate electricity from heat Caen, France (SPX) Nov 09, 2022 To convert heat into electricity, easily accessible materials from harmless raw materials open up new perspectives in the development of safe and inexpensive so-called thermoelectric materials. A synthetic copper mineral acquires a complex structure and microstructure through simple changes in its composition, thereby laying the foundation for the desired properties, according to a study published in the journal Angewandte Chemie. The novel synthetic material is composed of copper, manganese, germ ... read more
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