New Drilling System Makes Wells Directional Microwave

AltaRock Energy is testing a new drilling technology in which rocks are destroyed by directional microwave radiation.

A huge supply of heat is hidden in the bowels of the earthenergy, 0.1% of which is enough to meet the needs of mankind for 2 billion years. However, modern drilling methods do not cope with dense rocks and high pressure, and some may even provoke an earthquake. Therefore, most projects do not reach a depth of more than 3 km due to technical and financial problems.

Previouslyteam of researchers from MassachusettsInstitute of Technology proposed to abandon mechanical stress and melt minerals using millimeter waves. AltaRock Energy engineers took this idea as a basis and developed a new installation that uses a 1 MW gyrotron to generate microwave radiation with a frequency of 30 to 300 GHz.

The technology provides that metalThe waveguide directs powerful radiation at the mineral, melting it and burning a hole. To prevent plasma destruction and ignition, compressed gas is injected in parallel. In preliminary tests, the team successfully made holes in granite, basalt, sandstone and limestone.

AltaRock Energy recently received a grant of$3.9 million from the US Department of Energy's Advanced Research Projects Agency. Over the next three years, the company plans to improve the system and demonstrate its effectiveness on room-thin slabs. Drilling at actual test sites is expected to begin by September 2022.

According to the developers, such a system will accelerate penetration to greater depths at lower costs compared to mechanical methods.

Another example of increasing the efficiency of existing technologies is a new method of ore processing that allows rare earth metals to be extracted from it in 20 minutes.

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