The Green Village project – Kansen voor West
(In progress- 2024)
The Netherlands wants to get rid of gas, especially if it comes from Russia. Closed Shallow Geothermal installations, contribute to the transition from gas to renewable energy sources. The innovation Canopus is working on namely the drilling of curved wells with steel shot, reduces the cost of these installations and also reduces the footprint.
The objective of the Kansen voor West subsidised project is to drill two closed-loop bore hole heat exchangers at The Green Village of TUDelft. Both bore hole heat exchangers are to be drilled with DSSD to 400 m depth – one vertical and the other with a large curve away from the vertical one. The bore hole heat exchangers are to be completed with a double U-shaped probe each and to be connected to the heating system of The Green Village. Upon completion a thermal response test of both heat exchangers will be done and compared to the model that predicts a much higher performance of the longer, curved one. Then the system can be connected to a heat network with a heat pump. The Green Village recently completed such a heat network.
After The Green Village project Canopus will take on several commercial projects. It has been calculated that the savings with curved wells are significant because fewer wells are needed and because of a smaller footprint (also see this Whitepaper Curved Wells for Shallow Geothermal Everywhere). The Green Village project in Delft is already being monitored by several parties in Europe. Please contact the Canopus team if you are also interested in the DSSD technology for the drilling of curved bore hole heat exchangers in 2025.
DEPLOI the HEAT
(In progress – 2024)
The DEPLOI the HEAT consortium succesfully tested the Directional Steel Shot Drilling (DSSD) technology of Canopus during a horizontal drilling pilot at the great site of Hagerbach Test Gallery (VersuchsStollen Hagerbach AG) in Switzerland. The pilot was completed in July 2023.
The addition of less than 0.5% vol of 1 mm steel shot particles to the drilling mud increased the rate of penetration with up to an impressive factor three. While going into steering mode! Straight sections as well as three turns were drilled. Retrofitting the DSSD system with the horizontal drilling unit of Schenk AG Heldswil was easy and worked well. The hole cleaning was good and consistent with circulation tests previously conducted at the Rijswijk Centre for Sustainable Geo-energy. A total length of 250 m was drilled.
Conclusion: The DSSD technology is ready for building the first DSSD directional drilling service unit for 6 inch bore holes at >1 km vertical depth. A pilot for that unit is scheduled in a geothermal well in The Netherlands in 2024.
More information can be found on de website of DEPLOI the HEAT.
Deploi the Heat has been subsidised through the GEOTHERMICA and JPP Smart Energy Systems Joint Call by The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO) and the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (SFOE).
TKI project DEPLOI
The abrasive jet drilling technology with steel shot as the abrasive particulate material, has already been field-proven as a fast hole making method for well construction. However, the technology lacked a solution for directional control. The objective of the TKI project DEPLOI, coordinated by and executed at TNO Rijswijk Centre of Sustainable GeoEnergy, was to demonstrate the Steel Shot Drilling version of Canopus including the solution for directional control. The project was successfully completed in 2022.
The project delivered the proof of concept of a full-scale lab prototype for the directional steel shot drilling technology. The project also investigated very operational aspects and the potential heat productivity impact of DSSD-drilled multilaterals in permeable geothermal reservoirs.
The results were presented in the proceedings of the European Geothermal Congress 2022
Key findings of the TKI project DEPLOI were
- Down hole particle concentration detection and control, which are key for the steering sub functionality, work for down hole conditions. Down hole power consumption is very low and commercial down hole batteries or power generators can be used
- Productivity of three 6 inch diameter laterals in a typical Dutch sandstone reservoir boosts productivity up to a factor 3. The lower the transmissivity the higher the production improvement
- Hole cleaning, mud rheology and circulation flow rate for the small steel shot particles are the same as for normal drill cuttings
- TNO conducted drill tests at realistic field conditions in granite tight limestone, sandstone and concrete
