Assistant Professor of Nuclear Science and Engineering Jack Hare has received funding to participate in the development of next-generation geothermal stimulation technology. Hare will work on a project led by Eden, a geoscience technology development company. The project focuses on Electro-Hydraulic Fracturing (EHF), a technique that uses high-voltage electricity and low-volume water injection to access a fracture network for heat recovery. This new electro-magnetic approach improves on traditional hydraulic fracturing by using less water, and providing better imaging and monitoring of fracture networks. Hare will be using pulsed-power technology to break apart rocks in geothermal reservoirs, dramatically increasing the surface area available for heat transfer, and therefore the economic viability of deep geothermal power generation.
Eden has received a USD 3.8M award for this research from Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), which seeks to support cutting-edge, potentially game-changing energy technologies at an early stage in their development.
Hare will conduct this work at MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center (PSFC).