Hephae is enabling a new generation of high-temperature geothermal wells that can be drilled anywhere and at scale, bringing cost reductions that will make geothermal energy economically attractive. Hephae is bringing to market the technology that the industry will need to drill these wells accurately, safely, and productively.
Geothermal is increasingly being recognized as the solution for baseload power to complement other renewable energy sources as global energy infrastructure shifts away from fossil fuels.
Unconventional Geothermal (using engineered reservoirs to provide geothermal heat) is estimated to provide 130x greater resources than traditional geothermal energy. The key challenge is to drill accurately, to greater depths and hotter temperatures, thereby realizing more efficiency and return on investment. Current geothermal projects rely on existing oil & gas drilling technology, which is largely limited to 175°C temperature. This limits heat recovery and reduces the return on geothermal projects. As opposed to oil & gas, hotter is better for geothermal, and unconventional drilling depths can easily reach 20,000 ft. whilst passing through temperatures of 300°C.
Hephae is developing novel drilling parts with high-temperature electronics that are vital to the exploitation of superhot rock for geothermal power generation. It incorporates proven technology from within oil and gas (based on 100 years of experience) and plans to leverage the latest technological advancements from aerospace, including 500°C technology from the space program (USA). These technologies are being designed to reliably handle extreme temperatures, proven by using SimScale, which provides thermal and flow simulation on GPU-accelerated cloud computing resources. SimScale is also used to evaluate shock and structural stresses by replicating the intense pressure and thermal characteristics of deep drilling.
“The SimScale platform and support team have been critical for our success in realizing an ambitious product vision. The simulation and collaboration features in SimScale have unlocked faster development times, and we are on track to deploy our first units in 2025.”
Peter Harvey
VP of Technology at Hephae
Hephae’s first product is the Pandora210 MWD system. The most compact tool of its type in the drilling industry, it is designed to operate at temperatures up to 210°C with the ultimate goal of 300ºC. The Pandora210 MWD system includes circuit boards with sensitive sensors and electronics that must be shielded from high temperatures. The design balances the requirements of shock and vibration resistance with those of thermal management. It is designed to push the temperature limits of electronics and sensor technologies to further enable the exploitation of geothermal energy.
“We have nothing but great feedback for SimScale. Their cloud-native simulation software is enabling our engineers to move rapidly and converge on our goal of reaching deployable prototypes that will unlock unconventional geothermal energy globally. We are moving beyond the technical capabilities of traditional oil & gas engineering, and unlike oil & gas, hotter is better for geothermal energy. We are using SimScale to perfect a heat shield for sensitive electronics in our deep drilling devices to withstand 300°C. Just 1% of the world’s superhot rock energy potential could generate 63 terawatts of clean power – 8x more energy than the rest of the world’s electricity put together, and Hephae will be at the forefront of this revolution.”
John Clegg
President and CTO at Hephae
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