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Technology Development and Field Trials of EGS Drilling Systems at Chocolate Mountain

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Polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) bits are routinely used in the oil and gas industry for drilling medium to hard rock but have not been adopted for geothermal drilling, largely due to past reliability issues and higher purchase costs. The Sandia Geothermal Research Department has recently completed a field demonstration of the applicability of advanced synthetic diamond drill bits for production geothermal drilling. Two commercially-available PDC bits were tested in a geothermal drilling program in the Chocolate Mountains in Southern California. These bits drilled the granitic formations with significantly better Rate of Penetration (ROP) and bit life than the roller cone bit they are compared with. Drilling records and bit performance data along with associated drilling cost savings are presented herein. The drilling trials have demonstrated PDC bit drilling technology has matured for applicability and improvements to geothermal drilling. This will be especially beneficial for development of Enhanced Geothermal Systems whereby resources can be accessed anywhere within the continental US by drilling to deep, hot resources in hard, basement rock formations.

Citation Formats

TY - DATA AB - Polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) bits are routinely used in the oil and gas industry for drilling medium to hard rock but have not been adopted for geothermal drilling, largely due to past reliability issues and higher purchase costs. The Sandia Geothermal Research Department has recently completed a field demonstration of the applicability of advanced synthetic diamond drill bits for production geothermal drilling. Two commercially-available PDC bits were tested in a geothermal drilling program in the Chocolate Mountains in Southern California. These bits drilled the granitic formations with significantly better Rate of Penetration (ROP) and bit life than the roller cone bit they are compared with. Drilling records and bit performance data along with associated drilling cost savings are presented herein. The drilling trials have demonstrated PDC bit drilling technology has matured for applicability and improvements to geothermal drilling. This will be especially beneficial for development of Enhanced Geothermal Systems whereby resources can be accessed anywhere within the continental US by drilling to deep, hot resources in hard, basement rock formations. AU - Knudsen, Steven A2 - Raymond, David A3 - Blankenship, Doug A4 - Bjornstad, Steve A5 - Barbour, Joel A6 - Schen, Aaron DB - Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI) DP - Open EI | National Renewable Energy Laboratory DO - 10.15121/1225980 KW - geothermal KW - chocolate mountains KW - drilling KW - pdc bit KW - roller cone KW - granite KW - chocolate mountains drilling KW - synthetic diamond KW - rate of penetration KW - egs KW - lateral vibration spectrum KW - California KW - CA KW - Southern California KW - SoCal KW - drilling records KW - performance data KW - drilling charts KW - before and after KW - pictures KW - vibration spectrum LA - English DA - 2012/01/01 PY - 2012 PB - Sandia National Laboratories T1 - Technology Development and Field Trials of EGS Drilling Systems at Chocolate Mountain UR - https://doi.org/10.15121/1225980 ER -
Export Citation to RIS
Knudsen, Steven, et al. Technology Development and Field Trials of EGS Drilling Systems at Chocolate Mountain. Sandia National Laboratories, 1 January, 2012, GDR. https://doi.org/10.15121/1225980.
Knudsen, S., Raymond, D., Blankenship, D., Bjornstad, S., Barbour, J., & Schen, A. (2012). Technology Development and Field Trials of EGS Drilling Systems at Chocolate Mountain. [Data set]. GDR. Sandia National Laboratories. https://doi.org/10.15121/1225980
Knudsen, Steven, David Raymond, Doug Blankenship, Steve Bjornstad, Joel Barbour, and Aaron Schen. Technology Development and Field Trials of EGS Drilling Systems at Chocolate Mountain. Sandia National Laboratories, January, 1, 2012. Distributed by GDR. https://doi.org/10.15121/1225980
@misc{OEDI_Dataset_6503, title = {Technology Development and Field Trials of EGS Drilling Systems at Chocolate Mountain}, author = {Knudsen, Steven and Raymond, David and Blankenship, Doug and Bjornstad, Steve and Barbour, Joel and Schen, Aaron}, abstractNote = {Polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) bits are routinely used in the oil and gas industry for drilling medium to hard rock but have not been adopted for geothermal drilling, largely due to past reliability issues and higher purchase costs. The Sandia Geothermal Research Department has recently completed a field demonstration of the applicability of advanced synthetic diamond drill bits for production geothermal drilling. Two commercially-available PDC bits were tested in a geothermal drilling program in the Chocolate Mountains in Southern California. These bits drilled the granitic formations with significantly better Rate of Penetration (ROP) and bit life than the roller cone bit they are compared with. Drilling records and bit performance data along with associated drilling cost savings are presented herein. The drilling trials have demonstrated PDC bit drilling technology has matured for applicability and improvements to geothermal drilling. This will be especially beneficial for development of Enhanced Geothermal Systems whereby resources can be accessed anywhere within the continental US by drilling to deep, hot resources in hard, basement rock formations.

}, url = {https://gdr.openei.org/submissions/140}, year = {2012}, howpublished = {GDR, Sandia National Laboratories, https://doi.org/10.15121/1225980}, note = {Accessed: 2025-05-06}, doi = {10.15121/1225980} }
https://dx.doi.org/10.15121/1225980

Details

Data from Jan 1, 2012

Last updated May 18, 2017

Submitted Dec 13, 2012

Organization

Sandia National Laboratories

Contact

Steven Knudsen

Authors

Steven Knudsen

Sandia National Laboratories

David Raymond

Sandia National Laboratories

Doug Blankenship

Sandia National Laboratories

Steve Bjornstad

USN Geothermal Program Office

Joel Barbour

Barbour Well Inc.

Aaron Schen

NOV Downhole

Research Areas

DOE Project Details

Project Name Technology Development and Field Trials of EGS Drilling Systems

Project Lead Arlene Anderson

Project Number AID 20008

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