Advanced Materials for Geothermal Energy
Supercritical carbon dioxide has properties midway between a gas and a liquid and forms at temperatures and pressures above carbon dioxide’s critical point. Group contributors study the interaction of supercritical CO2 with rock structures, important for future enhanced geothermal systems. Enhanced geothermal systems are a new technology that extracts hydrothermal energy at any location worldwide having underground temperature greater than 200C. Supercritical CO2 is being proposed as a working fluid for enhanced geothermal systems because of its thermodynamic and physical properties. In addition, the behavior of supercritical CO2 is crucial for the underground sequestration of post-combustion carbon. How CO2 will interact with rocks underground and various structural materials is important to the success of carbon sequestration and some enhanced geothermal technologies. The group also studies advanced cements and coatings for reducing the cost of geothermal energy systems, an area where Brookhaven Lab has a long history of accomplishment.