TERRACOH INC — Department of Energy SBIR Phase II: 11b

Description

In topic 11.b, Dispatchable Geothermal Operations, DOE seeks to enable more widespread deployment of geothermal as a dispatchable energy source.TerraCOH’s CO2 Plume Geothermal (CPG™) and Earth Battery™ technologies are ideally suited to meet DOE’s needs.Conventional geothermal power technology has generally been limited to use as a baseload power source, but with increasing penetration of intermittent renewables on the power grid, technologies that can be operated on demand are becoming more valuable.In Phase I, we worked to define the minimum viable initial product (MVP) within the TerraCOH technology suite, advance our business plan and market-product fit requirements, and enhance our modeling capabilities to more closely simulate the dispatchable MVP.We have also, critically, improved our calculation of Levelized Cost of Electricity (LCOE) and Storage (LCOS) for our technology suite.In Phase II of this study, the overall objective is to complete the engineering design of the initial field project, including the stages of development and testing for this pilot site.The effort will include: • Together with our geologic modeling partner, Dr.Buscheck at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratoy, completing a detailed and site-specific geophysical and coupled fluid/ heat flow model of the pilot site(s).• In conjunction with our power system partner, Echogen Power Systems, designing and completing initial engineering of a CO2-based power system that will be deployed at that site.• With our EPS partner, Wood, completing the full surface system engineering design.• Working with our CO2 capture partners, Carbon Engineering and Enviro Ambient, completing an engineering study to examine and design the link between the CO2 capture and geologic injection components of the CPG system.• With our geochemical research partner, Dr.Ellis at the University of Michigan, examining reactive transport and porosity/permeability evolution in the site-specific CPG reservoir.• Together with our long-time techno-economic modeling collaborators, advancing these analyses to capture the MVP installation through commercial-scale distribution.At the end of the Phase II project, TerraCOH and partners will be prepared to begin construction of the CPG demonstration facility.The pilot-scale power plant will operate on non-water working fluids, including CO2, nitrogen and/or air.This facility will be built in stages to minimize risk and maximize successful technology demonstrations.Upon demonstration, we will move to construction of commercial power plants.This demonstration will also prove key elements of TerraCOH’s Earth Battery technology, which exists on a continuum with CPG but is designed to provide grid-scale geologic energy storage rather than geothermal power.