Patented Technology

The ETSES and Multi Well Thermal Syphoning energy systems improve sustainable thermal energy production levels by more than 200% over standard single well geothermal energy systems installed in sediments.
No additional energy input is required to increase the energy output and the cold front risk present with single well systems is removed using the ETSES and Multi Well Systems,

Cold front is when the geology around a well cools and thermal energy production is lost until the well is rested and the geology heats up again. This can take more than a year.

Typically, a single well system drilled to 6,000 metres or 300 °C geology temperature will produce approximately 8 MWt and due to the production fluid heat levels from the well head at the surface being lower than 220 °C, the organic rankine cycle (ORC) binary circuit turbine system must be used. With typical efficiencies from ORC systems, our modelling is suggesting that a maximum of 1 MWe of electricity production can be achieved from a 300 degree C single well.

A closed loop multi well system using the patented ETSES or multi well thermal syphoning system installed at depths of 8,000 to 10,000m exposing 400 to 500 degree c geology temperature should produce a sustainable average of 60 MWt per five well system and due to the production flow temp being higher than 280 °C, more efficient direct steam turbines can be used.
The average efficiency from direct steam turbines is 30% and so up to 18 MWe of sustainable electricity can be generated from the five well system in granites with 100% thermal syphoning providing the thermal energy production at the surface with no pumping required.
The CAPEX of an ORC surface system is US$1.6 million per MW. Direct Flash Steam Turbine is under US$1 million per MW. This represents a US$60 million saving at 100 MW on power plant costs alone.

Our total power plant and well CAPEX is between $3.4 and $4m per Mwe, which is considerably lower than solar and wind CAPEX when you consider the 50 to 100 year geothermal well life compared to just 15 years of expected life from a solar or wind farm with an installed CAPEX of US$2.5m per Mwe and OPEX three times higher than our geothermal electricity generation OPEX.

Based on our experience and previous valuations from Deloitte, KPMG and Glasshouse on IP created by Warren Strange, we estimate the conservative value of this IP to be in excess of A$1 Billion.

This un-official value is based on the earning potential from green hydrogen sales at A$10
per kg with a total production cost of less than A$2.00 per kg. The value is also taking into effect CAPEX saving per 100 MWe of more than A$450 million. Without the ETSES and Multi Well Thermal Syphoning Systems, more than 52 wells are required to produce 100 MWe and with ETSES and multi well systems, only 27 wells are required with contingency provided.
At an average cost of A$10 million per well, this represents significant value. Land usage without the patented geothermal energy systems would be less than 20 MWe per hectare and with the patented systems, 40 to 60 MWe can be produced per Ha.

The CBMH is the result of more than 25 years of R&D on fluid hammer drilling technology.

Water or fluid hammers have been commercially available since the mid 1990’s for shallow blast hold drilling however, adapting the technology for deep energy drilling has been a long and expensive process with limited opportunities to trial in deep wells and several unforeseen problems discovered during deep drilling development.

The major problems experienced with fluid hammer drilling in deep wells are the inability to clear drill cuttings from the drill face due to limited flow capacity through the hammer components and rapid wear of the moving components inside of the hammers.

There are at least 5 well established suppliers
of fluid hammers worldwide. The largest size fluid hammer produced commercially to date is 12” and all of the fluid hammers available from these suppliers still have the unresolved faults of regrinding and premature wear below 3,000m.

None of the fluid hammers available provide a commercially viable solution for deep drilling and all of the geothermal drilling operations in the world are still using tricone and PDC rotary drilling methods.

During our R&D since 2006 and our deep granite drilling program during 2016 and 2017 in Finland, we were able to trial most of the fluid hammers from Australia, USA and Sweden. During the Finland program, we confirmed the faults of the fluid hammers below depths of 3,000m and have since designed and tested new designs that have resolved the drill cutting clearance, re-grinding and component wear cost problems.

Drill testing and improvements of the new hammers has been ongoing since 2017 and during 2020, feedback from drill trials has provided the confidence for full commercial production.

Three international hammer manufacturers have been chosen for licensed manufacturing and will supply GWE directly with the commercial ready product for the first geothermal drilling project.

Compared to rotary drilling costs, the CBMH will reduce the cost of a 9,000m well in sediments such as in the Perth Basin by more than A$25 million and in granite as found where most of Australia’s geothermal energy will be produced in the future, the cost savings are better than A$60 million per well compared to rotary drilling costs.

The IP value of fluid hammer systems designed in the past by Warren Strange have been set
at more than A$300 million by independent international IP valuers. These valuations were based on the fluid hammer operating at commercially viable levels prior to discovering the re-grinding and wear problems below 3,000m in 2016-17. These design faults have now been rectified and the patented CBMH design is providing reliable and commercially viable production levels.

Our estimate on IP value for the CBMH is similar to that of the past, prior to demonstration in Finland. Using the CBMH on the Darwin project is estimated to save more than A$1.2 billion in drilling costs at the 100 MW capacity over typical rotary drilling costs provided that the ETSES is being used to reduce the number of wells to 20 per 100 MW.

CBMH IP is currently licensed exclusively to GWE.

A system that includes a steam engine or screw expander driven by geothermal energy, to drive a compressor or pump for the transfer or pumping salty or sea water to the desalination plant, and fresh water away from the desalination plant without the requirement for electricity or fossil fuel energy systems that create CO2 emissions for both desalination and pumping requirements.

A steam engine or screw expander driven by geothermal energy, that drives a compressor or pump for the transfer or pumping of gas or water along a pipeline with no requirement for electricity or fossil fuel energy systems that create CO2 emissions.

An electrolysis production system fed by baseload DC current electricity and zero emission distilled water produced by a single well, closed loop geothermal energy system that requires no energy for the thermal energy production, and uses no electricity for the delivery of sea water or salt water to the desalination plant, or for fresh water delivery to the electrolysis plant.

This geothermal green hydrogen production system also compresses hydrogen after electrolysis to 1,000BAR using thermal energy without the requirement for electricity.

A process to compress green hydrogen using thermal energy using thermal energy, without the requirement for electricity. This process removes the additional energy typically required with solar or wind powered green hydrogen production that is equivalent to 13% of the hydrogen produced.

By using water thermal energy from our geothermal energy plants, hydrogen can be compressed for no additional cost and with no emissions.

This is the well design that GWE will use in granite geothermal projects.
It is a multi-well geothermal syphoning system, comprising at least one injection well and one production well.

Injection wells will have an inlet valve for controlling the volume of a fluid medium entering the system and the production wells will have
an outlet valve to control the volume of the fluid medium exiting the system.

Each of the wells have a well bore extending downward from a ground surface defining a plurality of substantially vertical bore sections, a first vertical bore section turning through 90 degrees and extending parallel to the ground surface to thereby define a horizontal bore section.

The horizontal bore section intersecting with the vertical bore sections of each of the remaining wells to fluidly interconnect each well of the system such that the fluid medium at a first temperature is introduced into the at least one injection well and the fluid medium at a second temperature is drawn from the at least one production well.

The horizontal well may be drilled first followed by the vertical wells spaced sufficiently apart to avoid interference with the other wells, drilled vertically to intersect the horizontal section of the first well drilled.

Alternatively, the horizontal well may be drilled after the vertical wells are drilled to the desired depth whereby the horizontal well will be drilled with directional control systems to ensure intersection with each of the vertical wells previously drilled.

Modelling by Schlumberger of this multi well, closed loop geothermal system presents “a potential paradigm shift for the geothermal industry as Three to Five Well Systems could present a scalable geothermal power generation alternative with minimal resource risk”.

This is the well design that GWE will use in granite geothermal projects.
It is a multi-well geothermal syphoning system, comprising at least one injection well and one production well.

Injection wells will have an inlet valve for controlling the volume of a fluid medium entering the system and the production wells will have
an outlet valve to control the volume of the fluid medium exiting the system.

Each of the wells have a well bore extending downward from a ground surface defining a plurality of substantially vertical bore sections, a first vertical bore section turning through 90 degrees and extending parallel to the ground surface to thereby define a horizontal bore section.

The horizontal bore section intersecting with the vertical bore sections of each of the remaining wells to fluidly interconnect each well of the system such that the fluid medium at a first temperature is introduced into the at least one injection well and the fluid medium at a second temperature is drawn from the at least one production well.

The horizontal well may be drilled first followed by the vertical wells spaced sufficiently apart to avoid interference with the other wells, drilled vertically to intersect the horizontal section of the first well drilled.

Alternatively, the horizontal well may be drilled after the vertical wells are drilled to the desired depth whereby the horizontal well will be drilled with directional control systems to ensure intersection with each of the vertical wells previously drilled.

Modelling by Schlumberger of this multi well, closed loop geothermal system presents “a potential paradigm shift for the geothermal industry as Three to Five Well Systems could present a scalable geothermal power generation alternative with minimal resource risk”.

A system using geothermal energy to produce green ammonia, green hydrogen produced by geothermal energy, nitrogen extracted from the atmosphere by geothermal energy and green electricity produced by geothermal energy for the electrolysis process required in the ammonia production plant.
This system will provide the capability of producing green ammonia from geothermal energy and sea water at very low costs compared to current gas produced ammonia.

Initial estimates for green ammonia production by this process are at A$0.15 per kg ($A150 per tonne) but further studies are ongoing to provide more accurate forecasts.