Conventional geothermal energy needs pre-existing fracture networks to conduct heat from rock to water and thence convect heat to surface turbines or other uses. Very few locations, less than 10% of Earth’s land area provide this. Enhanced geothermal systems (“hot dry rock”) can be created anywhere, but require new networks to be fractured. Hydrofracturing uses enormous amounts of pressurized water to fracture rock. Electrofracturing creates an electric plasma channel, essentially subterranean lightning, to fracture rock. Replacing most of the hydrofracturing by electrofracturing promises to save hundreds of millions of liters of water per typical well. This project models the plasma-channel effect by numerically simulating electric-current generation and heating, and nonlinear feedback of voltage and temperature on electric conductivity. It also models the advection of proppant in fracture liquids, and how proppant prevents fracture closure.
Sponsor: Eden GeoPower, Inc
ERL Personnel: Aimé Fournier (PI), Laurent Demanet
Collaborators: Davis Evans, Chunfang Meng, Adrian Moure, Paris Smalls (Eden); Robert Egert, Wencheng Jin, Vuong Van Pham, Ming Yang, Chunhui Zhao (Idaho National Laboratory)