A startup company called HyperSciences is using rocket technology for geothermal drilling in a low-profile manner, making the way of acquiring geothermal energy more cost-effective. Such operations have also attracted the attention of Google.
HyperSciences drilling diagram
According to IEEE (Editor's Note: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, an International Association of Electronic and Information Engineer Engineers) official website on March 5, Google’s ongoing hypersonic studies may reduce geothermal energy development and tunnel mining. Cost. To this end, Google may acquire the Washington startup called 'HyperSciences'. The company’s prototype equipment in this area has been completed.
Hypersonic devices are objects that travel at five times the speed of sound and above. They usually refer to extremely high speed aircraft and weapons, such as Boeing's non-human scooter scramjet engine X51 and Russian President Putin's new Russian fanfare Ballistic missiles.
In January of this year, Google and the NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley signed a $100,000 "Space Operations Agreement." The agreement states that 'Google's research department is working on Gao Renault. Conceptual Exploration of Hypersonic Orbits in Digital Ablation Mechanisms (Editor's note: Reynolds number is a dimensionless number that can be used to characterize fluid flow conditions), and calls for NASA's response to high density projectiles in dense atmospheres. Driving analysis.
However, some analysts speculate that Google's project researchers may use technology for climate and energy development instead of aerospace. Google has been very interested in geothermal energy development. Last July, Google’s parent company Alphabet’s moon X The program's department set up a company called Dandelion. Now, the company has begun selling household geothermal systems to New York State homes. The Dandelion system sends water into plastic pipes about 150 meters underground. Let it reach a stable water temperature of 10°C. This water can make the house cool in winter and cool in summer by the heat pump on the ground.
Google's geothermal system
The HyperSciences, a start-up company born out of the University of Washington, is working on R&D at a lower cost and better heating effect. Its development location is as deep as 7 kilometers underground.
The company claims that the new drilling system can launch concrete marbles at a speed of more than 5 Mach (about 6125 km/h) in front of the drill bit every few seconds. The marbles are driven by a mixture of air and diesel fuel. As the drill moves downwards axially, the projectile completely evaporates on the surface of the rock and decomposes the rock.
Once drilling is completed, pipes containing silicone oil instead of water will transfer heat to the surface, and thermoelectric generators will directly convert this heat into electricity. HyperSciences claims that this system is more efficient than traditional solar panels or wind turbines. Carbon-based power stations are cheaper.
Interestingly, if Google succeeds in acquiring HyperSciences, it will compete directly with another Muskeland company. The reason is that HyperSciences is also developing a tunnel system that uses the same hypersonic ballistic technology. The company claims that its super tunnel The cost of excavation and mining systems will be only one-fifth that of existing tunnelling machines, but tunneling speeds can be increased by 2.5 times.
Musk’s The Boring Company is working hard to greatly optimize the cost and speed of tunneling, thereby creating a tunnel for the super-high-speed rail trains and the underground car-borne electric sled network.
