Wed, 28 September, 2022
Developments from the Geo-Drill Project, in which TWI is a partner, have been published on the CORDIS website as part of the European Commission’s ‘Result Pack on Geothermal Energy.’
CORDIS is the European Commission's primary service for EU-funded research results and the article, ‘Holistic Technology Cuts the Cost of Geothermal Drilling,’ details how optimised equipment and technologies are set to cut the cost of geothermal drilling.
The article explains how the development of a down-the-hole (DTH) hammer that operates with an innovative valve system will deliver improved durability and longer-lasting performance during geothermal operations. In addition, the development of robust, low-cost 3D-printed sensors that provide real-time data and new graphene coatings have provided additional improvements and increased the overall lifetime of drill components.
The technologies developed during the project were subjected to full-scale laboratory testing under realistic reservoir conditions at the IEG Fraunhofer Institute for Energy Infrastructure and Geothermal Energy in Bochum, Germany.
These Geo-Drill project successes are part of a series of geothermal-related developments that are covered in the full ‘Supporting the Development of Europe’s Geothermal Energy Sector’ Results Pack.
You can see the Geo-Drill article here.
The GeoDrill project received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, Grant agreement no. 815319.