System and method for thermal energy storage
AssigneeOrca Sciences LLC
InventorsAustin Blake Vernon, James Williams, Aravindh Rajan, Ian Salmon McKay
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A system can include: a heat storage medium (e.g., soil, dirt, gley, sand, earth, bedrock, gravel, clay, silt, loam, rock, talus, scree, volcanic material, glacial debris, humus, and/or other earthen material), a heat transfer mechanism (e.g., resistive heater, inductive heater, forced air heater, forced fluid heater, etc.), and a heat output mechanism (e.g., thermoelectric device, fluid coupling, etc.). A method can include heating a heat storage medium with a heat transfer mechanism and extracting heat from the heat storage medium using a heat transfer mechanism.
Claims9
A method comprising:
- drilling into earthen material to form a plurality of indentations in the earthen material, wherein a depth of each indentation of the indentations is at least 10 ft and wherein a width of each indentation of the indentations is at least 2 inches;
- inserting a resistive heater into each indentation of the plurality of indentations, wherein each resistive heater comprises a conductive region and a Joule heating region, wherein each resistive heater is inserted into the respective indentation with the Joule heating region first;
- iteratively:
- heating the earthen material to a temperature between 400° C. and 1000° C. by applying an electric current to each resistive heater;
- and
- extracting heat from the earthen material using a heat transfer medium, wherein the heat transfer medium comprises steam, wherein extracting heat from the earthen material using the heat transfer medium comprises discontinuing flow of the heat transfer medium when the temperature of the earthen material is below a threshold temperature.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.