High-temperature Borehole Instrumentation


Book Description

A new method of extracting natural heat from the earth's crust was invented at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1970. It uses fluid pressures (hydraulic fracturing) to produce cracks that connect two boreholes drilled into hot rock formations of low initial permeability. Pressurized water is then circulated through this connected underground loop to extract heat from the rock and bring it to the surface. The creation of the fracture reservior began with drilling boreholes deep within the Precambrian basement rock at the Fenton Hill Test Site. Hydraulic fracturing, flow testing, and well-completion operations required unique wellbore measurements using downhole instrumentation systems that would survive the very high borehole temperatures, 320/sup 0/C (610/sup 0/F). These instruments were not available in the oil and gas industrial complex, so the Los Alamos National Laboratory initiated an intense program upgrading existing technology where applicable, subcontracting materials and equipment development to industrial manufactures, and using the Laboratory resource to develop the necessary downhole instruments to meet programmatic schedules. 60 refs., 11 figs.




High-temperature Borehole Instrumentation


Book Description

Research in materials, equipment, and instrument development was required in the Hot Dry Rock Energy Extraction Demonstration at Fenton Hill located in northern New Mexico. The new Phase II Energy Extraction System at the Fenton Hill Test Site will consist of two wellbores drilled to a depth of about 4570 m (15,000 ft) and then connected by a series of hydraulic-induced fractures. The first borehole (EE-2) was completed in May of 1980, at a depth of 4633 m (15,200 ft) of which approximately 3960 m (13,000 ft) is in Precambrian granitic rock. Starting at a depth of approximately 2930 m (9600 ft), the borehole was inclined up to 35° from vertical. Bottom-hole temperature in EE-2 is 317°C. The EE-3 borehole was then drilled to a depth of 4236 m (13,900 ft). Its inclined part is positioned directly over the EE-2 wellbore with a vertical separation of about 450 m (1500 ft) between them. The materials development programs cover all aspects of geothermal energy extraction. Research on drilling, hydraulic fracturing, and wellbore logging were necessary to determine the technical and economic feasibility of the hot dry rock concepts.




High Temperature Instrumentation for Geothermal Applications


Book Description

The technical development of geothermal borehole instrumentation is divided into three tasks: (1) severe environment components development, (2) prototype system development, and (3) borehole test and evaluation. The experimental prototypes will be tested in geothermal boreholes. (JGB).







High Temperature Electronics


Book Description

The development of electronics that can operate at high temperatures has been identified as a critical technology for the next century. Increasingly, engineers will be called upon to design avionics, automotive, and geophysical electronic systems requiring components and packaging reliable to 200 °C and beyond. Until now, however, they have had no single resource on high temperature electronics to assist them. Such a resource is critically needed, since the design and manufacture of electronic components have now made it possible to design electronic systems that will operate reliably above the traditional temperature limit of 125 °C. However, successful system development efforts hinge on a firm understanding of the fundamentals of semiconductor physics and device processing, materials selection, package design, and thermal management, together with a knowledge of the intended application environments. High Temperature Electronics brings together this essential information and presents it for the first time in a unified way. Packaging and device engineers and technologists will find this book required reading for its coverage of the techniques and tradeoffs involved in materials selection, design, and thermal management and for its presentation of best design practices using actual fielded systems as examples. In addition, professors and students will find this book suitable for graduate-level courses because of its detailed level of explanation and its coverage of fundamental scientific concepts. Experts from the field of high temperature electronics have contributed to nine chapters covering topics ranging from semiconductor device selection to testing and final assembly.







Observation of the Continental Crust through Drilling I


Book Description

Drilling deep into the earth holds a fascination for earth scientists derived in part from the fact that the drill hole is the ultimate test of a hypothesis. When surface exploration methods have been fully uti lized and all the geological inferences drawn about the structure be neath the surface, we must finally drill to sample directly the third dimension of the crust of the earth. The drill is thus the tool of choice of the energy and minerals re sources industry. Because of high cost, drilling has been only sparing ly used for solving fundamental problems in the earth sciences. But now, having used the quite sophisticated methodology of exploration geophysics, the exciting structural detail emerging from seismic re flection profiling in particular has led several nations to begin a major program of scientific drilling to solve some of the major prGb lems in the earth sciences. Hhat is described in this volume are the blueprints for national re search programs in France, the Federal Republic of Germany, Japan and the United States. The Soviet Union has already embarked on a major drilling effort, the results of which are soon to be published. Results, of course, are still few, and this first volume is more concerned with the problems to be solved.







Technology Transfer in New Mexico


Book Description




Mining the Earth's Heat: Hot Dry Rock Geothermal Energy


Book Description

Mining the Earth's Heat: Hot Dry Rock Geothermal Energy describes the work carried out by the Los Alamos National Laboratory to turn an idealistic concept - that of drawing useful amounts of energy from the vast underground store of hot rock at reachable depths - into a practical reality. This book provides comprehensive documentation of the over two decades of experiments carried out at the test site at Fenton Hill, New Mexico, where the feasibility of accessing and extracting this vast natural resource was finally demonstrated. It also discusses the numerous technical, administrative, and financial hurdles that had to be overcome along the way. This publication will no doubt prove invaluable to researchers around the world as they strive to move this now-proven technology toward commercial viability. In addition, it is a valuable source of relevant information for anyone interested in the world energy outlook for the 21st century and beyond.