Scientists in Iceland have devised an ambitious plan to drill into a volcano's magma chamber to provide abundant amounts of clean, super-hot geothermal energy.
If successful, the project would be a first in science and would involve drilling a borehole about 2.1 miles down the crust of the volcano known as Krafla, located northeast of Iceland.
With more than 200 volcanoes, Iceland is already a leader in geothermal energy, where heat or hot water vapor is extracted and separated into liquid water and steam. The steam is passed through a turbine to generate electricity, which is used to power and heat many greenhouses, which are used not only for heating but also for local high-level food production. According to the green energy website Energy Transition, around 90% of Iceland's homes are heated with geothermal energy.
Eruption of Geldingadalir volcano in Iceland photographed from Fagradalsfjall on August 9, 2021. (Thomas O'Neill/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
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But geothermal energy is cooler than steam from fossil fuel power plants, at about 482°F and 842°F, respectively, so harnessing magma chambers could unlock a far more powerful energy supply and help reduce the nation's entire energy inventory. It may be possible to increase it.
John Eichelberger, a volcanologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, told New Scientist: “There's a lot of interest in developing very high-temperature geothermal heat because it's very inefficient at these low temperatures.”
“The aim of producing energy from super-hot geothermal heat close to magma is that these wells are up to an order of magnitude more powerful in terms of energy production than conventional wells,” said project manager Bjorn Sol. Gudmundsson told the Daily Mail.
“You can drill one well instead of 10 to get the same amount of power.”
The project is being carried out by Iceland's magma research institute, the Krafla Magma Testbed (KMT), and is being carried out near one of the Krafla magma chambers by a team from a nearby power plant that is producing large quantities of geothermal energy. This builds on a 2009 effort to drill in the area. Volcanoes since the 1970s.
The purpose of the project was simply to get closer to the basement to investigate geothermal energy options, but the basement was not as deep as expected and the project accidentally broke through the magma basement.
Krafla geothermal power plant in Iceland. (Mikel Bilbao/VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
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The drill struck magma and ruptured the wellbore with 842°F heat, corroding the steel in the wellbore's casing. Kuomintang scientists are working on their next project to develop materials that can withstand scorching heat.
This project conclusively confirmed that drilling into magma is possible. The room does not cause a volcanic eruptionsays New Scientist magazine.
“One of the KMT's main goals is to develop wells with suitable materials that can withstand these conditions,” Gudmundsson told the Daily Mail.
Krafla Volcano is one of the country's most explosive volcanoes, having erupted approximately 29 times since the country was settled, with the last eruption dating back to 1984. The volcano that erupted in December was near the fishing village of Grindavik in the southwest. Part of Iceland.
“Using superheated or supercritical steam adjacent to a heat source has the potential to increase energy transfer to the surface by an order of magnitude and increase conversion efficiency to electricity by a factor of 3.5,” KMT scientists wrote in a 2018 paper. “There is.”
“Combined with benefits such as continuous operation (bedload), no need for fuel or waste transportation, limited carbon emissions, and advances in long-distance HVDC (high-voltage direct current) power transmission, geothermal energy can be used to power can change the energy game completely. ”
Krafla Volcano is one of the most explosive volcanoes in the country and has erupted approximately 29 times since the country was settled, with the last eruption dating back to 1984. (Mikel Bilbao/VW PICS/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
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The project will also help Kuomintang scientists monitor magma chambers by applying censorship devices that take pressure readings, which could improve eruption predictions.
Other experiments conducted in late 2010 may have involved injecting fluid into the chamber to change pressure and temperature, and measuring the results, according to the Daily Mail.
“This project is driven by the need to understand magma systems, improve volcano monitoring strategies, and develop the next generation of high-enthalpy geothermal energy,” Kuomintang scientists said in a 2018 paper. There is.
“Monitoring the temperature profile of the roof of a magma chamber reveals the actual heat flux from the magma to the hydrothermal system, an unprecedented test of both the potential and sustainability of very high temperature geothermal systems (SHGS). Observations reveal that SHGS is a system with temperatures above 662°F,'' the scientist added.
