Quaise, Inc
IndustryGeothermal Power
Founded2018
FounderCarlos Araque, Matt Houde, Aaron Mandell
Headquarters
Cambridge, Massachusetts
,
United States
Key people
Carlos Araque
Chief Executive Officer
ProductsMillimeter-wave drilling
Number of employees
20+
Websitequaise.energy

Quaise, Inc was founded in 2018 to develop a millimeter-wave drilling system for converting existing power stations to use superdeep geothermal energy.[1] The system repurposes existing gyrotron technology to drill 20 kilometers beneath the surface, where temperatures exceed 400 °C. No fracking is required, avoiding the potential for earthquakes that have occurred in other geothermal systems.[2][3] Drilling using this technique is hoped to be fast, with boreholes aimed to be completed in 100 days[4] using existing 1MW gyrotrons.

Overview

Existing geothermal power stations can only be deployed in rare locations where adequate heat is located within 3 km of the surface.[5] These resources are of a comparatively low temperature, and require seismically risky stimulation techniques. Further, drilling at these depths is expensive and slow. {{Citation needed}}

Instead, Quaise plans to drill quickly to deep depths using a gyrotron and waveguide, vaporizing the rock by heating it. {{Citation needed}} Temperatures at 20 km depth are above the supercritical point of water, which allows ten times more energy to be transferred given the same volumetric flow.[6] The supercritical water is then used in a supercritical steam generator which may previously have been powered with fossil fuels. {{Citation needed}}

Comparison with other power sources

The approach proposes advantages compared with other power sources:

  • Constant 24-hour generation - Maximum output always available. Does not require storage. Wind and Solar are intermittent generators. {{Citation needed}}
  • Small land footprint - Consumes less than 1% of the land area of wind or solar for the same maximum output.[7]

Status

In October 2021, Quaise began initial testing of gyrotron boring at Oak Ridge National Laboratory[8] and plans to have a full-scale gyrotron drilling rig completed by 2024.[9] By 2026, the company hopes to have achieved 100MW of geothermal power output.[10] By 2028, Quaise aims to have converted an existing fossil-fuelled power plant to run on geothermal steam.{{Citation needed}}

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Quaise Launches with $6 Million to Unlock Earth's Most Abundant Clean Energy Source". Business Wire. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  2. ↑ "The Interchange Recharged podcast: Quaise Energy digs deep – into the world of geothermal | Wood Mackenzie". woodmac.com. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  3. ↑ "Quaise's ultra-deep geothermal drilling plans: Your questions answered". newatlas.com. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  4. ↑ "Fusion tech is set to unlock near-limitless ultra-deep geothermal energy". newatlas.com. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  5. ↑ Fridleifsson, Ingvar (2008). "The possible role and contribution of geothermal energy to the mitigation of climate change". IPCC Scoping Meeting on Renewable Energy Sources, Proceedings: Vol. 20, No. 25, pp. 59–80. CiteSeerX 10.1.1.362.1202.
  6. ↑ Shnell, Jim; Elders, Wilfred (2019). "Exploration And Development Of Supercritical Geothermal Resources On The Ocean Floor" (PDF). PROCEEDINGS, 44th Workshop on Geothermal Reservoir Engineering: 3.
  7. ↑ "Fusion tech is set to unlock near-limitless ultra-deep geothermal energy". newatlas.com. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  8. ↑ "Geothermal - Quaise Begins Testing of Potentially Disruptive Geothermal Drilling Technology - Renewable Energy Magazine, at the heart of clean energy journalism". renewableenergymagazine.com. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  9. ↑ "Quaise Energy". quaise.energy. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
  10. ↑ "Energy from the earth, for the earth | MIT Technology Review". technologyreview.com. Retrieved 2022-03-18.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.