| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Laser Enhanced Drilling will speed drilling up to 4 to ten times and increase all kinds of mining, geothermal projects and tunneling for high speed rail and other applications
From
High power lasers from Foro Energy can increase the speed and efficiency of drilling through hard rock by two to four times. Being able to more quickly, cheaply and efficiently dig holes is very useful for oil and gas, geothermal, telecommunications, transportation and other applications.
ARPA-E – Foro Energy is developing a unique capability and hardware system to transmit high power lasers over long distances via fiber optic cables.potential to be up to 10 times more economical than conventional hard-rock drilling technologies, making them an effective way to access the U.S. energy resources currently locked under hard rock formations.
A high-power laser beam leaving Foro Energy’s drill bit and striking a hard rock formation.
Conventional mechanical drill bits cut softer rocks with stresses created by rotating a cutting surface with high weight-on-bit (WOB). Unfortunately, ultra-hard (i.e. high compressive strength) rocks inherently do not yield efficiently to even the most advanced mechanical cutters. The resulting slow drilling and short bit lifetimes result in poor performance and high expense.
Foro Energy developed a process that uses the laser to destroy rock and conventional mechanical bit components to remove the rock. This laser-mechanical drilling process enables
* Step change in drilling rate (2-4x)
* Extremely low WOB (less than 1000 lbs)
* Extremely low torque (less than 300 ft-lbs)
* Longer bit life
* Lower drilling cost per foot
See more and subscribe to NextBigFuture at 2012-12-13 20:23:01 Source: http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/12/laser-enhanced-drilling-will-speed.html
Source:
