Quaise Energy’s Post

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A better way to remove deeply drilled rock: compressed air. Our millimeter wave drilling process cannot rely on conventional techniques like drilling mud to remove rock cuttings. Drilling mud interferes with our waveguide and the millimeter waves themselves. The solution is to circulate a purge gas, or compressed air, throughout the process. Gases such as nitrogen and argon are ideal to flush downhole, sweeping all the vaporized rock away from the drilling front and up to the surface for removal. The purge gas system allows us to use millimeter wave drilling at unprecedented depths, unlocking deep #geothermal energy to decarbonize civilization within a generation.

  • Compressed air tank system.
Saba Sadiq

Petroleum Engineering Consultant

2mo

Exciting to see innovative approaches like compressed air and inert gases being explored as alternatives to traditional drilling fluids for ultra-deep geothermal wells. Successfully drilling at these depths is key to unlocking the full potential of geothermal energy and addressing access challenges. That said, I’m curious about how compressed air drilling fluid systems – which tend to lose effectiveness at depths of ~5,000-m (due to HP/HT constraints), will perform at the depths typical of deep geothermal wells? Specifically, how Quaise Energy plans to manage these technical challenges while maintaining efficiency and control? I have been following Quaise Energy for some time now and am a big supporter. If successful, I truly believe that this could be a significant step toward achieving sustainable and equitable energy around the world!

Roland Horne

Professor at Stanford University

1mo

How do you overcome the hydrostatic pressure of the water in the rock? That's another function of drilling mud.

Neil Peterson

Senior Geologist at Lithic Energy Solutions, LLC

1mo

What about just air from the atmosphere? Also, what about wellbore stability? And getting stuck in the hole? And well control? And water from aquifers that will undoubtedly fill the wellbore. And having to buy new drill pipe because it corrodes faster with air drilling? What about directional drilling that all relies on mud? Sounds good for burning holes in granite in the garage, but we’re not in the garage.

Samuel T.

Looking for Employ

1mo

Additionally, if those frequenicies can ever be used to vaporise silicon based rock, you may have discovered another means to produce electronics grade silicon by turning the silicon in to a pure elemental gas

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James (Jim) Love

Senior Data Migration Specialist | Salesforce 5X Certified @Salesforce | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Ranger | ex-ToD | Writer | Friend of Israel

2mo

It is exciting to follow your company as it solves various issues related to this new drilling method. The purging of spalled material seemed to me as a lay person to be the biggest hurdle.

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Samuel T.

Looking for Employ

2mo

Once you get one working and your making a profit, get a dedicated lab going to see various other frequencies can handle other types of rock

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John Dahl

Product Innovation & Marketing

2mo

Looks like the sample catchers will need really small mesh gloves 😂

Paul Woskov

Senior Research Engineer at MIT

1mo

High temperature drilling in a confined volume is inherently a positive pressure process P=nRT/V.

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David Yang

Hardware Engineer @ Ixana, PhD Student @ Purdue ECE

1mo

This is so cool 😎

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