Wellbore for extracting heat from magma bodies
AssigneeEnhancedGEO Holdings, LLC
InventorsGreg Lindberg, Kimberly C. Conner
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Wellbore for extracting heat from magma and a corresponding method. The method includes the steps of drilling a borehole from a surface and towards a magma chamber; supplying a drilling fluid to an interface between a drill bit and a terminal end of the borehole during drilling; terminating the drilling in response to the borehole achieving a predetermined depth; and supplying a thermodynamic fluid into the borehole to maintain the borehole while completing the wellbore. The drilling fluid lifts cuttings out of the borehole and quenches magma to form a solid phase material that can be cut by the drill bit.
Claims18
A method for completing a wellbore, the method comprising:
- drilling a borehole from a surface, towards a magma chamber, and into the magma chamber;
- supplying a drilling fluid to an interface between a drill bit and a terminal end of the borehole, wherein the drilling fluid lifts cuttings out of the borehole, and wherein the drilling fluid quenches magma to form a solid phase material that can be cut by the drill bit;
- terminating the drilling in response to the borehole achieving a predetermined depth;
- supplying a thermodynamic fluid into the borehole to maintain the solid phase material of the borehole while completing the wellbore, wherein the thermodynamic fluid is in contact with sidewalls of the borehole;
- casing the borehole from the surface to the terminal end of the borehole located in the magma chamber;
- and
- sealing a terminal end of the casing with an end cap that prevents the thermodynamic fluid from contacting the solid phase material.
A wellbore comprising:
- a borehole with an opening at a surface and a terminal end at a predetermined depth within a magma body;
- a casing disposed within the borehole and extending from the surface and into the magma body, wherein the casing is sealed at a terminal end by an end cap that prevents the working fluid from contacting a solid phase material formed from quenched magma;
- a wellhead coupled with the casing at the surface;
- and
- a fluid conduit passing through the wellhead, wherein the fluid conduit provides a continuous flow of working fluid to the terminal end of the wellbore to absorb heat from the magma body to form a continuous flow of heated working fluid extracted from the wellhead, wherein the borehole is maintained with a back pressure of at least at 1000 pounds per square inch (PSI).
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.