Scientists aim to drill into a volcanic magma chamber to unleash powerful energy

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By Michael Dorgan, Fox News

Scientists in Iceland have come up with an ambitious plan to drill into a volcanic magma chamber to capture an abundance of clean, extremely hot geothermal energy.

The project, which will be a scientific first if successful, will see wells drilled about 1.3 miles deep through the Earth’s crust at a volcano known as Krafla, located in northeastern Iceland.

With over 200 volcanoes, Iceland is already a leader in geothermal energy, where heat or hot water vapor is extracted and separated into liquid water and steam.

The steam is then passed through turbines that produce electricity used to power and heat many greenhouses, used to achieve high levels of domestic food production, as well as for heating.

About 90% of homes in Iceland are heated by geothermal energy, according to Energy Transition, a green energy website.

However, geothermal energy is cooler than steam in fossil fuel power plants, about 482 degrees Fahrenheit and 842 degrees Fahrenheit, respectively, so tapping into a magma chamber could unleash an extremely powerful energy supply and boost the country’s overall energy reserve.

“It’s completely inefficient at these low temperatures, so there’s interest in trying to develop superheated geothermal energy,” John Eichelberger, a volcanologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, told New Scientist.

Project manager Björn Thor Gumundsson told the Daily Mail: “The purpose of producing energy from very hot geothermal energy close to magma is that these wells are stronger in terms of energy production than conventional wells.”

“We can drill one well instead of 10 to get the same energy production.”

The project, undertaken by Krafla Magma Testbed (KMT), an Icelandic magma research organization, will build on a 2009 effort to drill near one of Krafla’s magma chambers by a team from a nearby power station that has produced geothermal energy from the volcano since the 1970s.

The goal of this project was just to get close to the chamber to explore geothermal options, but the chamber was not as deep as expected, and the project accidentally penetrated the magma vault.

Drilling struck magma and corroded the steel in the well casings, and the 842-degree Fahrenheit heat destroyed the well.

Kuomintang scientists are working on materials capable of withstanding the scorching heat in the upcoming project.

The project conclusively confirmed that drilling into the magma chamber does not cause an eruption, according to New Scientist.

“One of the main goals of the KMT is to develop wells with suitable materials that can withstand these conditions,” Gumundsson told the Daily Mail.

Krafla volcano is one of the most explosive volcanoes in the country, having erupted some 29 times since the country was first settled, although its last eruption was in 1984.

The volcano that erupted last December was near the fishing town of Grindavik, in the southwestern part of Iceland.

“Taking advantage of superheated or supercritical steam from an adjacent heat source can enhance the energy transfer to the surface by an order of magnitude and the conversion efficiency to electricity by 3.5 times,” KMT scientists wrote in a 2018 paper.

“When combined with the advantages of continuous operation (bed loading), the absence of the need to transport fuel or waste, limited carbon emissions, and advances in long-distance HVDC (high-voltage direct current) power transmission, geothermal energy can completely change the electrical system. The energy game “

The project will also help KMT scientists monitor the magma chamber by implementing a monitor that will take pressure readings, which could lead to improved predictions of eruptions.

Further experiments later this decade could include injecting fluids into the chamber to change pressure and temperature, and measuring the results, according to the Daily Mail.

“The project is driven by the need to understand magma systems, improve volcano monitoring strategies, and develop next-generation high-enthalpy geothermal energy,” KMT scientists wrote in a 2018 paper.

“Monitoring the temperature profile at the magma chamber ceiling will reveal the actual heat flow from the magma into the hydrothermal system, an unprecedented observation that will test both the promise and sustainability of superheated geothermal systems (SHGS).

SHGS are systems with temperatures hotter than 662 degrees Fahrenheit, the scientists added.