This entry was posted on Saturday, February 25th, 2023 at 16:50 and is filed under Think about it..
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2 Responses to “Digging 10 Miles Underground Could Yield Enough Geothermal Energy to Power Earth”
At ten miles deep, the drill string will have to support itself in an atmosphere of vaporized rock, then superheated steam. We don’t have anything that strong or heat resistant, and still able to perform useful work.
If water is piped down, then back up the same borehole, heat transfer through the walls of the pipe used will suck thermal efficiency big time. Water flow and steam flow through a ten mile pipe will be sluggish at best.
A fused glass lining of the borehole won’t be smooth at all, increasing resistance to flow.
I think this is nothing more than someone’s pipe dream.
The deepest hole drilled was about 7 1/2 miles deep.
There was a project once to make an underground hole to store natural gas by using an atomic bomb. The project was successful as far as making the hole, but it stayed highly radioactive, so it wasn’t useful for storing anything.
February 26th, 2023 at 14:23
A couple of things.
At ten miles deep, the drill string will have to support itself in an atmosphere of vaporized rock, then superheated steam. We don’t have anything that strong or heat resistant, and still able to perform useful work.
If water is piped down, then back up the same borehole, heat transfer through the walls of the pipe used will suck thermal efficiency big time. Water flow and steam flow through a ten mile pipe will be sluggish at best.
A fused glass lining of the borehole won’t be smooth at all, increasing resistance to flow.
I think this is nothing more than someone’s pipe dream.
February 28th, 2023 at 00:18
The deepest hole drilled was about 7 1/2 miles deep.
There was a project once to make an underground hole to store natural gas by using an atomic bomb. The project was successful as far as making the hole, but it stayed highly radioactive, so it wasn’t useful for storing anything.