Exploring Self-Sealing Solutions for Deep Geothermal
In 2023, EAPOSYS teamed up with Well Engineering Partners (WEP) for TU Delft’s Joint Interdisciplinary Project (JIP), an interdisciplinary Master’s course in which teams of five students work full-time for 10 weeks on an industry-defined challenge.
The student team was asked to evaluate technical solutions for drilling and working fluids with self-repairing and sealing properties in the context of barefoot-completion multilaterals for deep geothermal closed-loop systems.
Their work explored pre-treatment sealing before operation, the effectiveness of sealing solutions over time, and the impact of leakage and maintenance operations on energy production. The team also investigated water-based solutions using different concentrations of sealant additives.
Building Bridges Beyond the Project
The JIP kickoff in the Netherlands also coincided with the opening of Project InnerSpace’s PIVOT 2023: Building Bridges, hosted at the Energy Cave at TNO’s Rijswijk Centre for Sustainable Geo-energy, giving us the opportunity to connect the student project with a much broader conversation around the future of geothermal.
PIVOT 2023 brought together geothermal innovators and the oil & gas industry around the emerging “geothermal anywhere” movement. The visit also provided the opportunity to see the drilling rig on the TU Delft campus, bringing the discussions back to the technologies and engineering capabilities needed underground.
For EAPOSYS, these experiences naturally complemented each other: working with the next generation of engineers on a concrete AGS challenge while engaging with an industry increasingly focused on transferring subsurface expertise toward geothermal energy.
A Great Student Contribution
The project contributed to the broader effort to strengthen the performance, reliability and long-term operation of Advanced Geothermal Systems (AGS).
A big thank you to Polychronia Angelidou, Aalif Mohammed, Hadeer Ramdan, Jana Teresa Riederer and Yuxuan Yang for their enthusiasm, interdisciplinary thinking and valuable contribution to advancing our AGS concepts.
