Mon, 24 July, 2023
Having begun in 2019, we are pleased to announce that the Geo-Drill project is coming to a successful close following four years of work.
TWI worked as part of a consortium of partners on the European Union-funded project over a number of years to develop a revolutionary new ‘Down The Hole (DTH)’ hammer that uses a fluidic oscillator instead of a traditional valve while also offering improved durability and resistance to the aggressive and corrosive environments associated with geothermal drilling operations. The consortium also developed 3D sensors to monitor drilling operations, with the technologies combining to offer improved part lifetimes and reduced costs for geothermal operations.
Much of this work was made possible by TWI’s expertise in materials, coatings and joining, with our dedicated Surface, Corrosion and Interface Engineering team proving influential through their knowledge of novel coatings, surfacing and corrosive environment engineering.
By uniting robust designs with advanced simulation and our expertise in high-performance coatings, the project consortium pooled their resources to tackle the challenges faced by geothermal energy and help it progress as a real-world answer to sustainable energy questions.
By reducing costs and improving monitoring and asset lifecycles in geothermal drilling operation, the Geo-Drill team have helped make geothermal energy a more appealing prospect for investors and energy providers alike.
With the project coming to a close, the consortium have released a final project newsletter, including details of a Q&A session conducted with experts from TWI who were working on the project.
The newsletter also provides informative links to articles about the live field testing that took place during the project, the different journals and other publications that have showcased the technologies developed during the project, and details of conferences, exhibitions, talks and events where information about the Geo-Drill project has been shared over the past four years.
There is still time to subscribe and see the final newsletter, here and you can find out more about the project at the dedicated Geo-Drill website, here.
The Geo-Drill project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 815319