Hoyt C. Hottel Lecture in Chemical Engineering – 2024

Realizing the Potential of Geothermal District Heating for De carboizing Energy: How Advances in Subsurface Science and Engineering are Changing the Game

 

Jefferson W. Tester, PhD ’71
David Croll Sesquicentennial Fellow and Professor
Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering
Cornell University

Friday, November 8, 2024
3:00 p.m., 66-110
(2:30 p.m. Reception)
Massachusetts Institute of Technology

 

 

Abstract:

In the United States, space and water heating in residential and commercial buildings and low-temperature industrial process heat are provided primarily by the combustion of fossil fuels (natural gas, fuel oil and propane) in furnaces and boilers. For states located in the northern tier region, heating accounts for a significant fraction of their carbon footprint. Therefore, achieving carbon-neutrality will require a transformation of our heating systems. For example, in New York State, about 40% of its carbon footprint is caused by heating. Using geothermal energy in district heating systems offers an attractive option. Since 2010, Cornell has been evaluating the use of Earth Source Heat (ESH) for providing carbon-neutral heating for its campus. The basic idea of Cornell’s ESH project is to circulate water through fractured regions of deep hot rock containing naturally-stored heat at sufficiently high temperatures to supply thermal energy to the campus district energy network. With the campus’s high baseload winter heating demand of about 50 MW(thermal), a successful demonstration of geothermal heating at Cornell would also serve as a representative and scalable model for carbon-neutral affordable heating for many rural and urban communities across the country.

In the summer of 2022, the Cornell ESH project took an important first step by drilling an exploration well, formally called the Cornell University Borehole Observatory or CUBO, to a depth of 3 km (TD = 9790.5 ft). Cornell’s ongoing efforts to demonstrate ESH at scale will be discussed, including:  (1) subsurface characterization, (2) reservoir design and heat extraction modeling, (3) integrating baseload geothermal district heating using ESH with bioenergy-fueled peak heating into Cornell’s energy system infrastructure.

Bio

Dr. Tester is a Professor of Sustainable Energy Systems in the Smith School of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at Cornell University. He also serves as Cornell’s Principal Scientist for Earth Source Heat. Dr. Tester founded and served as Director of the Cornell Energy Institute from 2009 -2017 and is a Fellow in the Atkinson Center for a Sustainable Future and a Croll Energy Fellow. Prior to 2009, he spent over 25 years at MIT where he served as Director of the MIT Energy Lab from 1989 to 2003 and was the Program Director of the School of Chemical Engineering Practice from 1980 to 1989. While at MIT, he led a study of the geothermal potential of the U.S., resulting a major report in 2007– The Future of Geothermal Energy. Dr. Tester was the US representative for geothermal energy to the IPCC working group. In 2011, he received the Special Achievement Award from the Geothermal Resources Council. In 2021, he was elected to the National Academy of Engineering.

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