The Thermodrill consortium for the H2020 project analyses the progress made in a meeting held at INERCO.

Representatives of the ThermoDrill Consortium for the Horizon 2020 project held a monitoring meeting at INERCO’s head office in Seville, at which the degree of progress made in the work was analysed and the most recent achievements were pooled. This project, as part of the European Commission’s (EC) Horizon 2020 programme, is developing an innovative sustainable drilling system that is faster, more cost-effective, and able to withstand extreme temperature and pressure conditions for geothermal drilling, with a view to using the renewable energy obtained as a source of electricity production.

The working group partners—composed of the Universities of Leoben (Austria) and Munich (Germany), Es-Geothermie (France), Bestec Gmbh (Germany), Rag Energy Drilling Gmbh (Austria), Sirius-Es Handels Gmbh (Austria), Smith International (Italy), Geo-Energie Suisse (Switzerland) and INERCO—put together an multidisciplinary team of experts to bring about innovation in the field of deep geothermal drilling through a new combining of technologies in an improved overall process.

Through the new drilling technique that is being developed, the intention is to optimise the use of geothermal technology in a project that includes exhaustive laboratory research for the analysis of the relevant rock and drilling fluid parameters. The ThermoDrill project also involves the design of components and state-of-the-art high-tech tools for use in high temperature and pressure conditions. All of this is combined in a fast track innovative drilling system, using “made-in-Europe” technology.

INERCO is taking responsibility for the environmental assessment of improvements in the process from the perspective of life cycle analysis, as well as from the Industrial Safety and Occupational Health point of view (HSE its acronym in English), as a recognised international expert in HSE and risk management.

The working group will next meet in September 2016 in Strasbourg (France), to coincide with the European Geothermal Congress.

This project has received funding from the European Union`s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 641202.