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Tool created at Geosciences Measurement Facility Enables Unprecedented Look at Subsurface Rock Fractures1 min read

by Christina Procopiou on June 1, 2018

GC-Sustainable Earth Geothermal Systems Uncategorized

A new instrument developed at the Geosciences Measurement Facility at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory will help scientists working to identify ways to improve enhanced geothermal systems technologies to expand access to clean energy.

Two of the instruments, called SIMFIP (Step-Rate Injection Method for Fracture In-Situ Properties), were installed in late May nearly 5,000 feet below ground at the Sanford Underground Research Facility (SURF) in South Dakota. SURF has become an essential testing ground for the Enhanced Geothermal Systems (EGS) Collab Project, a collaboration of eight national labs and six universities exploring the potential to improve enhanced geothermal systems technologies led by Berkeley Lab.

The installations mark an important milestone for EGS Collab Project researchers focused on improving the understanding and modeling of rock fractures in geothermal environments. SIMFIP is the first tool to allow researchers to measure the aperture of a rock fracture. With better information about how rocks behave in the Earth’s subsurface, EGS technologies stand a better chance of fulfilling their potential to provide enough energy to power 100 million American homes.

Watch this video about the making of SIMFIP at GMF.

News & Events

EGD Postdoc Fellow Receives Young Researcher Presenter Award1 min read

January 21, 2021

Pramod Bhuvankar, an EGD postdoctoral fellow working with research scientist Abdullah Cihan, received a Young Researcher Presenter Award during the 2020 Computational Methods in Water Resources conference in December. His presentation, “Pore-scale simulations of permeability decline in porous media due to fines migration,” described a pore-scale CFD study of clay mobilization in porous media due…

Berkeley Lab Partners with International Collaborators in Geothermal Energy Research1 min read

January 20, 2021

  Scientists from the Energy Geosciences Division have begun working with European partners on three new geothermal research projects through the Department of Energy’s membership in GEOTHERMICA, a transnational consortium that combines the in-country financial resources and research expertise of 15 participating countries to demonstrate and validate novel concepts in geothermal energy use. This marks the…

EESA Senior Scientist Talks Earthquake Building Resilience1 min read

Berkeley Lab senior scientist David McCallen leads a subproject called Earthquake Sim, or EQSIM, for the DOE’s Energy Exascale Computing Project. He is also professor and director of the Center for Civil Engineering Earthquake Research in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of Nevada, Reno. McCallen recently spoke with Scott Gibson of…

EESA Scientist Coauthors New Comprehensive Guide on Removing CO2 from the Atmosphere2 min read

January 18, 2021

Berkeley Lab researchers are working on ways to sequester more carbon in soil, including through agricultural practices. (Credit: Berkeley Lab) Scientists say that any serious plan to address climate change should include carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies and policies, which makes the newly launched CDR Primer an especially vital resource, says Berkeley Lab scientist Margaret Torn, one…

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