Jefferson Tester, Cornell University: “How advances in subsurface science and engineering will accelerate the development of geothermal district heating”
Abstract: Space and water heating in residential and commercial buildings and low-temperature industrial process heat in New York State are provided primarily by the combustion of fossil fuels (natural gas, fuel oil and propane) in furnaces and boilers. As a result, heating currently accounts for about 40% of the State’s carbon footprint. To reach New York’s aspirational goal of achieving carbon-neutrality by 2050, a transformation of its heating systems is necessary. Since 2010, Cornell has been evaluating using Earth Source Heat (ESH) for providing carbon-neutral heating for its campus. The basic idea of Cornell’s ESH project is to circulate water thru fractured regions of deep hot rock containing naturally-stored heat at sufficiently high temperatures to supply thermal energy to the campus district energy network. With its high baseload winter heating demand of about 50 MW(thermal), a successful demonstration of geothermal heating at Cornell would also serve as a representative and scalable model for carbon-neutral heating in many rural and urban communities located elsewhere. Last year, Cornell’s Earth Source Heat (ESH) project took an important step forward. Starting in June through August, 2022, an exploration well was drilled to a depth of 3 km (TD = 9790.5 ft). The exploration well is formally called the Cornell University Borehole Observatory or CUBO. At this seminar, Cornell’s ongoing project research and analysis will be discussed including: (1) subsurface characterization, (2) reservoir design and heat extraction modeling, (3) combining baseload district heating using ESH with peak heating using renewable natural gas from waste biomass into Cornell’s energy system infrastructure, (4) technical and economic objectives, and (5) site-selection and design of an initial exploratory well on campus.
Dr. Tester is a Professor of Sustainable Energy Systems in the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University. He also serves as Cornell’s Principal Scientist for Earth Source Heat. Dr. Tester founded and served as Director of the Cornell Energy Institute from 2009 to 2017 and is a Fellow in the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and a Croll Energy Fellow. He led a study of the geothermal potential of the US, resulting a major report in 2007: The Future of Geothermal Energy. Dr. Tester was the US representative for geothermal energy to the IPCC working group. In 2011, he received the Special Achievement Award from the Geothermal Resources Council. In 2021, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.
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Brandy Toner, University of Minnesota: "Investigating microbial life in rock fractures within the continental deep biosphere"
Abstract: Microbial communities in the deep continental biosphere are isolated from Earth surface inputs over long time scales. Within rock fractures, microbial life must derive energy and other essential substrates from rock and groundwater sources. Fracture-scale mineral precipitation and dissolution reactions can control habitability of fractures by liberating substrates and creating habitat or filling fractures and preventing exchange with fracture networks. We are investigating these processes in legacy boreholes and archived cores from the Canadian Shield using direct geochemical and microbiological observations, as well as fracture flow and equilibrium geochemical modeling approaches. We access the deep continental biosphere at 700 m below ground surface through the Soudan Mine Underground State Park. The data and modeling products from geochemistry, hydrogeology, and microbiology are used together to interpret the interactions among groundwater, rock, and microbial life that create positive or negative feedbacks on habitability of fractures in the continental deep biosphere.
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