Great development in geothermal

[Stan]

Can’t believe that I’ve not heard of this. It’s so promising that BP and Chevron have put in investment.

[Joeboy]

Can’t believe that I’ve not heard of this. It’s so promising that BP and Chevron have put in investment.

Elastopoymer seal I guess. Directional drilling, bit of coil tubing. Great idea! I'd love to get an upclose look at subsurface manifold design.

[Mart]

I watched this and enjoyed it. But I wasn't 100% sure if it was designed to provide leccy generation or just space heating?

Not being critical, space heating would be excellent and reduce demand for leccy from HP's, I just wasn't sure if this was also generation. Anyone know?

[AE-NMidlands]

I watched this and enjoyed it. But I wasn't 100% sure if it was designed to provide leccy generation or just space heating?
Not being critical, space heating would be excellent and reduce demand for leccy from HP's, I just wasn't sure if this was also generation. Anyone know?

I think they said space heating in Europe because the infrastructure is already in place and they can replace FF pdq, and power in the W USA as the need there is for electricity when wind and solar aren't delivering. I guess that means there must be a heat pump phase - or is the fluid going to come up above 100 C?
It's nice that when they have no demand the heat sits in the ground and effectively prolongs the economic life of the plant. I did find it odd that they say the output drops when the cooled radius from each pipe reaches the neighbouring pipe's zone, it keeps delivering but at a fraction less, and also that there is no mention of the thermal flux upwards from the earth's core, which is why it's hot down there anyway.

A

[nowty]

The company behind it is here,
https://www.eavor.com/

The Eavor-Loop™
The Radiator
Eavor’s closed-loop geothermal technology consists of several Patent Pending innovations. The Eavor-Loop is a closed-loop geothermal system within which a proprietary working fluid is contained and circulated. The working fluid is not fluid from a reservoir flowing into our wells, it is a fluid added to the closed-loop Eavor-Loop™ to create an efficient radiator, much like a vehicle radiator circulates fluid in a closed loop to remove heat from a gasoline engine.

Energy Generation
Eavor-Loop™ harvests heat from deep in the earth to be used for commercial heating applications (ex: greenhouses or district heating) or to be used to generate electricity using conventional heat to power engines. Eavor-Loop™ is an industrial scale geothermal system that mitigates many of the issues with traditional geothermal systems, which rely upon using wells to produce brine from a subsurface aquifer.

Advanced Geothermal
The main difference between traditional geothermal and Eavor-Loop™ is scalability. Traditional geothermal has never been globally scalable as the conditions required are very rare. There are only a few places in the world where you can find a hot underground aquifer to extract hot liquid in order to generate usable energy. The difference between Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) and Eavor-Loop™ is again scalability. While EGS is more scalable than traditional geothermal, fracking its own aquifer and injecting liquid is also reliant on very specific conditions which are also rare to find in the world.

Energy Produced
The working fluid naturally circulates without requiring an external pump due to the thermosiphon effect of a hot fluid rising in the outlet well and a cool fluid falling in the inlet well. The working fluid contained in this closed-loop pipe system brings thermal energy to the surface where it is harvested for use in a commercial direct heat application or converted to electricity with a power generation module (heat engine). Unlike heat pumps (or “geo-exchange”), which convert electricity to heat using very shallow wells, Eavor-Loop generates industrial-scale electricity or produces enough heat for the equivalent of 16,000 homes with a single installation.

[Mart]

I watched this and enjoyed it. But I wasn't 100% sure if it was designed to provide leccy generation or just space heating?
Not being critical, space heating would be excellent and reduce demand for leccy from HP's, I just wasn't sure if this was also generation. Anyone know?

I think they said space heating in Europe because the infrastructure is already in place and they can replace FF pdq, and power in the W USA as the need there is for electricity when wind and solar aren't delivering. I guess that means there must be a heat pump phase - or is the fluid going to come up above 100 C?
It's nice that when they have no demand the heat sits in the ground and effectively prolongs the economic life of the plant. I did find it odd that they say the output drops when the cooled radius from each pipe reaches the neighbouring pipe's zone, it keeps delivering but at a fraction less, and also that there is no mention of the thermal flux upwards from the earth's core, which is why it's hot down there anyway.

A

Thanks (and Nowty). I did wonder about the slow loss part. Perhaps for space heating, the reduced demand in the warmer periods (just hot water?) would allow it to warm back up a bit? Certainly sounded quite positive, and every additional tool in the RE toobox only makes the whole stronger.

[Stan]

How on earth do they directionally drill these long underground bores so that they can intersect miles away?

[Joeboy]

How on earth do they directionally drill these long underground bores so that they can intersect miles away?

Directional steered drilling heads can hit literally any mark. The trick I'd like to see is if they seal off the underground manifold then drill back through to link it up.

I suppose you could run in, perforate, seal then perforate another 10 mtrs back up. That would give a bore and annulus communication path. Wouldn't mind sitting down and sketching this out. The thermosiphon portion is beautiful. Not thought this way for decades!

[AE-NMidlands]

How on earth do they directionally drill these long underground bores so that they can intersect miles away?

Directional steered drilling heads can hit literally any mark. The trick I'd like to see is if they seal off the underground manifold then drill back through to link it up.

I suppose you could run in, perforate, seal then perforate another 10 mtrs back up. That would give a bore and annulus communication path. Wouldn't mind sitting down and sketching this out. The thermosiphon portion is beautiful. Not thought this way for decades!

I imagine they will still need some sort of pump though. If it is paused when there is no heat demand, then both the up- and down-shafts will end up with warm fluid at the bottom, gently migrating upwards and needing a shove to get it going properly when it is needed.
Maybe system losses at the surface will keep it circulating anyway?

[Joeboy]

How on earth do they directionally drill these long underground bores so that they can intersect miles away?

Directional steered drilling heads can hit literally any mark. The trick I'd like to see is if they seal off the underground manifold then drill back through to link it up.

I suppose you could run in, perforate, seal then perforate another 10 mtrs back up. That would give a bore and annulus communication path. Wouldn't mind sitting down and sketching this out. The thermosiphon portion is beautiful. Not thought this way for decades!

I imagine they will still need some sort of pump though. If it is paused when there is no heat demand, then both the up- and down-shafts will end up with warm fluid at the bottom, gently migrating upwards and needing a shove to get it going properly when it is needed.
Maybe system losses at the surface will keep it circulating anyway?

No pump I think? I liked the 30 year slowdown built in. I am sure they'll have the ability to inject cold fluid to get it going if stalled but likely a contingency. Maybe a gravity drop tank?